Tech
High-fashion goes high-tech in ‘#techstyle’
‘#techstyle,’ an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, considers how technological innovations such as 3-D printing are influencing fashion.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Plants
Here’s what a leaf looks like during a fatal attack of bubbles
Office equipment beats synchrotrons in showing how drought lets air bubbles kill the water-carrier network of veins in plant leaves.
Notebook
Astronomy
This eclipse goes on and on
The longest known stellar eclipse hides a nearby star for nearly 3.5 years behind a thick clump of orbiting dust once every 69 years.
Features
-
Lasers unveil secrets and mysteries of Angkor Wat
The world’s largest temple, Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, was revealed by laser and radar studies to be part of a sprawling medieval metropolis.
-
Gun research faces roadblocks and a dearth of data
Gun violence research is stifled by funding shortfalls and limitations on data access.
More Stories from the May 14, 2016 issue
- Health & Medicine
Global obesity rates continue to climb
Despite public health campaigns, the worldwide prevalence of obesity is on the rise, an analysis of BMI data suggest.
- Health & Medicine
A sugar can melt away cholesterol
A sugar called cyclodextrin removes cholesterol from hardened arteries in mouse studies.
- Genetics
Some people are resistant to genetic disease
People who should have genetic diseases but don’t may point to new treatments.
- Quantum Physics
Gamers outperform computer at quantum task
Quantum mechanics may be weird, but a new video game shows that human intuition can still best computers at quantum tasks.
- Ecosystems
Heat may outpace corals’ ability to cope
Corals may soon lose their ability to withstand warming waters.
- Anthropology
Viking-era woman sheds light on Iceland’s earliest settlers
Viking-era woman accompanied island’s early settlers as a child from Scandinavia or Britain.
- Environment
EPA boosts estimate of U.S. methane emissions
A new report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revises the agency’s methane emission estimates upward by 3.4 million metric tons.
- Cosmology
New sky map charts previously unknown gamma-ray sources
A new map of the sky from the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory charts the cosmic origins of high-energy photons.
- Humans
Pieces of Homo naledi story continue to puzzle
Researchers defend Homo naledi as a new hominid species and debate how it reached an underground cave.
- Anthropology
Belize cave was Maya child sacrifice site
Bones in Central American cave suggest many Maya sacrificial victims were children.
- Cosmology
How to make gravitational waves ‘sing’
A rapidly spinning black hole would make a unique pattern of gravitational waves when it sucks in a smaller companion.
- Health & Medicine
‘Dirty’ mice better than lab-raised mice for studying human disease
Dirtier mice may better mimic human immune reactions.
- Paleontology
Clearer picture emerging of dinosaurs’ last days
Dinosaurs’ final days may have included both a giant asteroid and gradual species die outs. Two new studies paint an increasingly intricate picture of dinosaur’s demise.
- Cosmology
Ancient dwarf galaxy was heavy-element factory
A rare event in an ancient galaxy left traces of heavy elements in its stars.
- Paleontology
Beetle saved in amber had helicopter wings
For the first time, scientists report the fossilized remains of two tiny Jacobson’s Beetles, preserved in amber for at least 37 million years.
- Life
Studying cheese reveals how microbes interact
Microbiologist Rachel Dutton uses cheese rinds to study how microbes form communities.
- Microbes
Leptospirosis bacterium still haunts swimming holes
Bacterial scourges lurk in warm recreational waters.
