Feature

  1. Life

    Helping Bats Hold On

    Scientists seek a savior as a deadly fungal pandemic explodes through vulnerable colonies.

    By Janet Raloff
  2. Space

    Flying on Sunshine

    Once futuristic visions, solar sails now take off.

    By Alexandra Witze

  3. When Birds Go to Town

    Urban settings offer enterprising critters new opportunities — if they can cope with the challenges 

    By Susan Milius

  4. The Color of Controversy

    Link between food dyes, childhood hyperactivity gets renewed attention.

    By Laura Beil
  5. Tech

    Sparing the rare earths

    Potential shortages of useful metals inspire scientists to seek alternatives for magnet technologies

    By Devin Powell
  6. Materials Science

    Carbon flatland

    Graphene’s two dimensions offer new physics, novel electronics.

    By Alexandra Witze
  7. Humans

    Water’s Edge Ancestors

    Human evolution’s tide may have turned on lake and sea shores.

    By Bruce Bower
  8. Health & Medicine

    One problem, many paths

    Autism’s many genetic players may act through common networks.

    By Laura Sanders
  9. Humans

    Crime’s digital past

    Computer science makes history, gleaning new findings from centuries' worth of transcripts from a Victorian-era courthouse.

    By Bruce Bower
  10. Space

    Lighting the universe

    Scientists rethink what the first stars were like and how they formed.

    By Ron Cowen
  11. Health & Medicine

    Residents of the brain

    It's a zoo in there: Scientists turn up startling diversity among neurons.

    By Laura Sanders
  12. Health & Medicine

    The Power of D

    Sunshine vitamin’s potential health benefits stir up, split scientists.

    By Nathan Seppa