Genetics
The history of heredity makes for a fascinating, and chilling, read
From eugenics to gene editing, Carl Zimmer’s She Has Her Mother’s Laugh recounts genetics’ biggest discoveries.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Future smart clothes could pack serious gadgetry
Casual daywear may someday contain some serious tech. But engineers have to take conventional electronics and make them comfortable to wear.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Paleontology
Here’s how hefty dinosaurs sat on their eggs without crushing them
Some heavier dinos had a strategy to keep eggs warm without crushing them: sit in an opening in the middle of the clutch instead of on top of them.
Notebook
Animals
These caterpillars march. They fluff. They scare London.
Oak processionary moths have invaded England and threatened the pleasure of spring breezes.
Features
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What consumer DNA data can and can’t tell you about your risk for certain diseases
Consumers face lots of choices and unanswered questions when they get personal genomic information related to disease risk from the Internet.
More Stories from the June 9, 2018 issue
- Genetics
Adapting to life in the north may have been a real headache
A cold-sensing protein has adapted to different local climates, also affecting risk of migraine.
- Tech
This self-driving car could one day take you on a real road trip
Most autonomous cars are city drivers. This one’s made for cross-country road trips.
- Astronomy
New ideas about how stars die help solve a decades-old mystery
New ideas about stellar evolution help explain why astronomers see so many bright planetary nebulae where they ought not be.
- Artificial Intelligence
This AI uses the same kind of brain wiring as mammals to navigate
This AI creates mental maps of its environment much like mammals do.
- Earth
Satellite data backs theory of North Korean nuclear site collapse
After North Korea’s most recent nuclear test, two underground cave-ins occurred, possibly rendering the facility unusable, a new study suggests.
- Life
There’s a genetic explanation for why warmer nests turn turtles female
Scientists have found a temperature-responsive gene that controls young turtles’ sex fate.
- Astronomy
First 3-D map of a gas cloud in space shows it’s flat like a pancake
An interstellar gas cloud dubbed the Dark Doodad Nebula looks like a wispy, thin cylinder. But it’s actually a flat sheet.
- Animals
A deadly frog-killing fungus probably originated in East Asia
The disastrous form of Bd chytrid fungus could have popped up just 50 to 120 years ago.
- Humans
The window for learning a language may stay open surprisingly long
A crucial period for language learning may extend well into teen years, a new study suggests.
- Planetary Science
Another hint of Europa’s watery plumes found in 20-year-old Galileo data
A fresh look at old data suggests that NASA’s Galileo spacecraft may have seen a plume from Jupiter’s icy moon Europa in 1997.
- Neuroscience
RNA injected from one sea slug into another may transfer memories
Long-term memories might be encoded in RNA, a controversial study in sea slugs suggests.
- Cosmology
These stars may have been born only 250 million years after the Big Bang
Scientists find evidence that stars were forming just 250 million years after the universe was born.
- Particle Physics
The inside of a proton endures more pressure than anything else we’ve seen
For the first time, scientists used experimental data to estimate the pressure inside a proton.
- Animals
Green blood in lizards probably evolved four times
Pigment buildups that would cause jaundice in people are normal for some New Guinea skinks.
- Life
Your blood type might make you more likely to get traveler’s diarrhea
People with type A blood are more likely to develop severe diarrhea from E. coli infections.
- Anthropology
Ancient Chinese farmers sowed literal seeds of change in Southeast Asia
Two waves of ancient migration from China to Southeast Asia spread farming and languages.
- Life
Skeletons come in many shapes and sizes
In Skeletons, two paleobiologists recount how and why skeletons evolved, as well as the variety of forms they take and the many purposes they serve.
- Health & Medicine
‘Outbreak’ puts the life cycle of an epidemic on display
At the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the exhibit “Outbreak” highlights how infectious diseases shape our world.
- Tech
50 years ago, NASA astronauts prepared to return to space
Apollo 7 crewmembers underwent their first major tests 50 years ago. Today, U.S. astronauts struggle to get into space.
