Agriculture
‘Big Chicken’ chronicles the public health dangers of using antibiotics in farming
A new book takes a hard look at the chicken industry for its role in fostering antibiotic resistance.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
The list of diseases linked to air pollution is growing
Air pollution levels have come down since the 1970s, but smog is being linked with a growing list of diseases, including dementia, obesity, diabetes and even Parkinson’s.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Animals
Pollen hitches a ride on bees in all the right spots
Flower reproduction depends on the pollen that collects in hard-to-reach spots on bees, a new study shows.
Notebook
Life
This biochemist brews a wild beer
Wild beer studies are teaching scientists and brewers about the tropical fruit smell and sour taste of success.
Features
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Bat brain signals illuminate navigation in the dark
New lab technologies that let bats fly freely allow scientists to track nerve cell signals as the animals dodge and weave.
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How bats could help tomato farmers (and the U.S. Navy)
The way bats navigate their environs inspires engineers to develop better sonar and robots that can estimate crop yield or deliver packages
More Stories from the September 30, 2017 issue
- Genetics
If you’re 35 or younger, your genes can predict whether the flu vaccine will work
A set of nine genes predicted an effective response to the flu vaccine in young people, no matter the strains.
- Life
How horses lost their toes
Fossils reveal that as horses evolved to have fewer toes, they also got stronger and faster.
- Health & Medicine
How gut bacteria may affect anxiety
Microbes may tamper with the production of tiny molecules in brain regions that help control anxiety.
- Astronomy
Star that exploded in 1437 tracked to its current position
Astronomers have hunted down a star seen exploding in the year 1437 and traced it since, offering clues to the stages of a white dwarf.
- Astronomy
Tabby’s star is probably just dusty, and still not an alien megastructure
New looks at older data on the weirdly flickering Tabby’s star muddy possible explanations — but it’s still probably not aliens.
- Anthropology
Fiery re-creations show how Neandertals could have easily made tar
Neandertals could have made tar with simple methods and materials on hand, new experiments show.
- Tech
Tiny quantum storage device fits on a chip
Photon information processing on nanoscale could enable future communication networks.
- Quantum Physics
Minuscule jitters may hint at quantum collapse mechanism
Vibrations of a tiny cantilever could help reveal why quantum rules fail on large scales.
- Health & Medicine
Zika could one day help combat deadly brain cancer
The Zika virus targets cells that cause glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, studies in human cells and mice show.
- Paleontology
Woolly rhinos may have grown strange extra ribs before going extinct
Ribs attached to neck bones could have signaled trouble for woolly rhinos, a new study suggests.
- Neuroscience
Brain chemical lost in Parkinson’s may contribute to its own demise
A dangerous form of the chemical messenger dopamine causes cellular mayhem in the very nerve cells that make it.
- Life
When a fungus invades the lungs, immune cells can tell it to self-destruct
Immune system resists fungal infection by directing spores to their death.
- Animals
Animal goo inspires better glue
Researchers are turning to nature to create adhesives that work in the wet environment of the human body.
- Planetary Science
Moons of Uranus face future collision
By studying variations in the rings of Uranus, researchers have determined the mass and density of the planet’s moon Cressida.
- Psychology
Confusion lingers over health-related pros and cons of marijuana
50 years ago, the effects of chronic marijuana smoking on mental health were hazy. They still are.
- Animals
Why bats crash into windows
Smooth, vertical surfaces may be blind spots for bats and cause some animals to face-plant, study suggests.
- Particle Physics
Dark matter still remains elusive
Scientists continue the search for particles that make up the universe’s missing matter.
