Genetics
Evolve and Linkage turn science into games
In the two new games Evolve and Linkage, biological principles are made entertaining and strategic.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Ebola, Rosetta, e-cigarettes and more top stories of 2014
West Africa’s Ebola epidemic captured the attention of both the scientific world, and the world at large in 2014, placing it first among the Top 25 stories of the year.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Animals
Bees, up close and personal
A photo archive from the U.S. Geological Survey's Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab offers detailed photos of bee species.
Notebook
Animals
Fully formed froglets emerge from dry bamboo nurseries
In remote India, a rare frog mates and lays eggs inside bamboo stalks. The eggs hatch into froglets, forgoing the tadpole stage.
Features
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Year in review: Science faces Ebola epidemic
West Africa’s 2014 Ebola epidemic showed what can happen when a contagious virus emerges where cultural practices, public fears and porous borders fuel the spread of disease.
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Year in review: Dust obscures possible gravitational wave discovery
A possible signal from moments after the Big Bang may be due to dust in the Milky Way galaxy.
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Year in review: Old humans reveal secrets
DNA of the oldest modern humans is rewriting the prehistories of Europe, Siberia and the Americas.
More Stories from the December 27, 2014 issue
- Life
Iguanas’ one-way airflow undermines usual view of lung evolution
Simple-looking structures create sophisticated one-way air flow in iguana lungs, undermining old scenarios of lung evolution.
- Cosmology
Galaxies may be aligned across 1 billion light-years
Powerful plasma jets from cores of galaxies seem to mysteriously align with one another and hint at an unknown mechanism shaping galaxy groups.
- Physics
Negative mass might not defy Einstein
Repulsive matter could have played a role in the early universe, a computational study finds.
- Oceans
Robotic subs reveal thicker Antarctic sea ice
New measurements by robotic subs suggest that scientists have underestimated Antarctic sea ice thickness.
- Tech
Blu-ray Discs get repurposed to improve solar cells
Polymer solar cells capture more sunlight when they are imprinted with movies’ and TV shows’ Blu-ray Disc etchings.
- Animals
Vulture guts are filled with noxious bacteria
Vultures’ guts are chock-full of bacteria that sicken other creatures.
- Health & Medicine
Turning the immune system on cancer
A new class of drugs uncloaks tumors in some patients, awakening home-grown cells to fight several cancer types.
- Life
Tadpole eye transplant shows new way to grow nerves
Wiring replacement organs into the body may be as easy as discharging a biological battery, new experiments with tadpoles suggest.
- Planetary Science
Year in review: Rosetta mission hits its target
The Rosetta spacecraft and its lander Philae are providing an intimate look at the life of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
- Neuroscience
Year in review: Memories vulnerable to manipulation
New experimental results in 2014 helped bring scientists closer to understanding how the brain manipulates memories to make sense of the world.
- Archaeology
Human ancestors engraved abstract patterns
Indonesian Homo erectus carved zigzags on a shell at least 430,000 years ago.
- Cosmology
Most precise snapshot of the universe unveiled
New results from the Planck satellite provide the most detailed look yet of the makeup of the universe.
- Astronomy
Starlight robs galaxy of stellar ingredients
Light from newborn stars drives gas out of a distant galaxy, a process that may prevent future stars from being born.
- Health & Medicine
Old drug reduces herpes symptoms, spread in animal tests
The antidepressant tranylcypromine might also work as antiviral against herpes, animal studies suggest.
- Climate
Greenhouse gases may spell wet future for Africa
Greenhouse gases played a role in boosting rainfall in Africa 14,000 to 21,000 years ago, a finding that may help predict future abundance of water on the continent.
- Environment
Year in review: Microbes exploit their killer
Triclosan, an unregulated antimicrobial chemical found in consumer products, may aid, rather than deter, microbes that invade people’s bodies.
- Neuroscience
Year in review: The nose knows a trillion odors
Humans can suss out more than 1 trillion different smells, a 2014 study estimated.
- Genetics
Year in review: Easy stem cells a no go
An incredibly easy method for making stem cells turned out to be impossible, again tainting the stem cell research field with controversy.
- Animals
Year in review: Insect, bird evolution revisited
Insects got an entirely new family tree after an extensive genetic analysis rearranged the creatures' relations.
- Genetics
Year in review: Genes linked to tameness
A look at the genes of domesticated animals offers possible insights into why taming has altered animals’ appearances.
- Anthropology
Year in review: Asian cave art got an early start
Stone Age cave painting began at about the same time in Southeast Asia as in Europe, challenging the idea that Western Europeans cornered the market on creativity 40,000 years ago.
- Earth
Year in review: Life thrives under Antarctica
Thousands of microbe species thrive in Lake Whillans deep beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet.
- Planetary Science
Year in review: Tectonics active on Europa
Jupiter’s frozen moon Europa has a shifting exterior analogous to Earth’s plate tectonics.
- Health & Medicine
Year in review: Gut reacts to artificial sweeteners
Saccharin messes with the body’s ability to metabolize fuel, a condition that often precedes diabetes, obesity and other metabolic problems.
- Neuroscience
Year in review: Young blood aids old brains
Ingredients in young blood can rejuvenate old mice’s bodies and brains, scientists reported in 2014.
- Health & Medicine
Year in review: Risks of e-cigarettes emerge
Electronic cigarettes dispense water vapor laced with flavors and often a hefty dose of nicotine. These vapors may be far from benign, studies in 2014 suggested.
- Astronomy
Year in review: Kepler gets second chance at life
This year, Kepler engineers figured out how to stabilize the almost-defunct Kepler telescope, while astronomers found hundreds more worlds.
- Archaeology
Year in review: Roster of dinosaurs expands
With the discovery of several new species and a few dogma-shaking revelations, dinosaurs got a total rethink in 2014.
- Particle Physics
Year in review: Neutrinos leave tracks in ice
The IceCube experiment has started to pinpoint the birthplaces of some high-energy neutrinos.
- Planetary Science
Year in review: Ocean may power Enceladus’ geysers
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft builds a stronger case for a subsurface ocean on Enceladus that drives ice geysers on the moon’s south pole.
- Animals
Year in review: The post-pigeon century
Birds' troubles received an eerie emphasis in the news when biologists marked the 100th anniversary of the death of the last known passenger pigeon.
- Planetary Science
Year in review: Business booming on Mars
Mars now has seven robots studying it and together they have given scientists their best view of any planet in the solar system other than Earth.
- Humans
Year in review: Genes, bones tell new Clovis stories
The genes and bones of the Clovis people reveal the range and legacy of the early North Americans.
- Climate
Year in review: Climate warnings heat up
Climate change is here and the world is unprepared, scientists and policy makers declared multiple times in 2014.
- Genetics
Year in review: Life’s complexity recoded
New genetic letters in bacteria and a simplified yeast chromosome showcase scientists' advances in understanding the simplicity and complexity of life.
- Animals
It’s bat vs. bat in aerial jamming wars
In nighttime flying duels, Mexican free-tailed bats make short, wavering sirenlike sounds that jam each other’s sonar.
- Health & Medicine
Electric detection of lung cancer
In 1964, researchers hoped to improve lung cancer diagnosis by measuring the skin’s electrical resistance.
- Science & Society
Science’s good, bad, ugly year
In the race for Top Science Story of 2014, some of the contenders stumbled before reaching the finish line.
- Microbes
The year in microbiomes
This year, scientists pegged microbes as important players in several aspects of human health, including obesity and cancer.
- Genetics
The year in genomes
From the tiny Antarctic midge to the towering loblolly pine, scientists this year cracked open a variety of genetic instruction manuals to learn about some of Earth’s most diverse inhabitants.
