Notebook

  1. Health & Medicine

    50 years ago, a pessimistic view for heart transplants

    Surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful human-to-human heart transplant in 1967. In 1968, he predicted that patients would survive five years at best. Fortunately, he was wrong.

    By Bethany Brookshire
  2. Physics

    Here’s how to bend spaghetti to your will

    Researchers have discovered how to snap spaghetti sticks without sending bits of pasta flying.

    By Maria Temming
  3. Animals

    There’s method in a firefly’s flashes

    Fireflies use their flashing lights for mating and maybe even to ward away predators.

    By Leah Rosenbaum
  4. Life

    How salamanders can regrow nearly complete tails but lizards can’t

    Differences in stem cells in the spinal cord explain the amphibians’ ability.