Health & Medicine
‘The Power of Prions’ explores misfolded proteins’ role in brain diseases
Michel Brahic’s new book spotlights prions’ role in diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Current Issue
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Cover Story
How does a fossil become a superstar? Just ask Lucy.
Geologic good fortune, skilled scientific scrutiny and a catchy name turned Lucy into an evolutionary icon.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Life
Here are some stellar picks from Nikon’s top microscopy images of 2024
The annual Small World photomicrography competition, now in its 50th year, puts life’s smallest details under the microscope.
Notebook
Science & Society
There’s a new term for attempting to own the wind: ventography
Nations established territorial claims underground to access oil and gas. Now they are expanding those claims upward to snag the wind.
Features
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Stray DNA is all around us. It could revolutionize conservation
Environmental DNA harvested from the ocean, land and air can help scientists monitor wildlife. The challenge is figuring out how to interpret this eDNA.
More Stories from the November 16, 2024 issue
- Health & Medicine
Once-weekly insulin might mean fewer shots for some with diabetes
Recent clinical trials of weekly insulin highlight how this formulation may be useful in managing diabetes, but the drug has limitations.
- Paleontology
The largest arthropod to ever live finally has a head
Fossils of an extinct giant millipede reveal new details about the arthropod’s anatomy.
- Planetary Science
The cataclysmic origins of most of Earth’s meteorites have been found
Just a few smashups in the asteroid belt may account for 70 percent of Earth’s meteorites, limiting what’s known about our solar system’s history.
- Archaeology
Silk Road cities reached surprising heights in Central Asia’s mountains
Drones with lasers revealed hidden urban centers that may have aided trade and travel through mountainous regions during medieval times.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s first Trojan asteroid has finally been discovered
Saturn joins the sun’s other giant planets that have Trojans, space rocks that orbit along the same path.
- Archaeology
The world’s oldest cheese is now revealing some of its secrets
A DNA analysis of the kefir cheese, first found about 20 years ago on 3,600-year-old mummies in China, confirms its age and pinpoints its origins.
- Space
JWST spots the first known ‘steam world’
Astronomers have found a world shrouded in an atmosphere of water vapor, orbiting a star 100 light-years away.
- Plants
Carnivorous plants eat faster with a fungal friend
Insects stuck in sundew plants’ sticky secretions suffocate and die before being subjected to a medley of digestive enzymes.
- Earth
What leads rivers to suddenly change course?
An analysis of satellite data could help predict where rivers will change their course and where their rerouted flows will go.
- Oceans
How tiny phytoplankton trek long distances upward in the ocean
Taking in seawater while filtering out dense salts lets unicellular phytoplankton migrate tens of meters vertically toward sunnier seas.
- Oceans
A transatlantic flight may turn Saharan dust into a key ocean nutrient
Over time, atmospheric chemical reactions can make iron in dust from the Sahara easier for organisms to take in, helping to create biodiversity hot spots.
- Animals
To tell a right-trunked elephant from a lefty, check the wrinkles
Elephant trunks, more sci-fi face-tentacle than ho-hum mammal nose, are getting new scrutiny as researchers explore how the wrinkles grow.
- Neuroscience
Your brain can perceive subtle odor changes in a single sniff
The speed at which our brain can tell smells apart is on par with color perception, a new sniff device shows.
- Environment
An idea to save Mexico’s oyamel forests could help monarch butterflies too
Climate change is putting monarch butterflies’ overwintering forests in Mexico at risk. Could planting new forests solve that problem?
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, U.S. drinking water sparked health and safety concerns
The discovery of potential cancer-causing agents in tap water led to the Safe Drinking Water Act — a law that continues protecting public health.
