When she took over in November 2009 as the first female director of the U.S. Geological Survey, geophysicist Marcia McNutt already had her work cut out for her in streamlining and modernizing a historic scientific agency. That was before a string of natural disasters—earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, a volcanic eruption in Iceland and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill—made her job an even bigger challenge. In October she spoke at the Geological Society of America meeting in Denver about the roller-coaster ride of her first year. Science News contributing editor Alexandra Witze compiled this edite... (p. 32)

In her synthetic biology lab at Stanford, Christina Smolke designs circuits and switches using biological components, work that may lead to yeast that crank out medicines or ways to reprogram the immune system. Winner of the 2009 World Technology Award in biotechnology for doing work of “the greatest likely long-term significance” in her field, Smolke is also involved with several open-science initiatives designed to help scientists work together more effectively. She recently discussed her research and open-science efforts with Science News staff writer Rachel Ehrenberg. Is your research... (p. 36)

In a 1905 paper, Albert Einstein proposed that light could travel in the form of particles later called photons. It was one of the pioneering papers in the research that led to quantum mechanics, the mathema­tical framework for describing matter and energy on a fundamental level. But in his later years, Einstein expressed grave dissatisfaction with quantum mechanics. He was especially unhappy with its description of reality in terms of probabilities, a view developed by the German physicist Max Born. Einstein preferred the deterministic cause-and-effect rigor of classical physics, expressing ... (p. 36)

In June, the United Nations passed a resolution designating October 20 as World Statistics Day. The United States planned to mark the occasion with a gathering on Capitol Hill of representatives from number-crunching agencies. Science News writer Laura Sanders recently spoke with U.S. Chief Statistician Katherine Wallman about why numbers matter. What does the United Nations have to do with statistics? The U.N. has a statistical commission and actually, one of the original functions of the United Nations was to produce comparable statistical information across the countries of the world. ... (p. 32)

It’s known that vitamin D is necessary for proper bone formation and maintenance. But recent decades have seen a torrent of studies suggesting that vitamin D can also affect many other aspects of health; some scientists have come to consider the daily recommended intake of 400 international units of vitamin D far too low. Michael Holick is a biochemist and endocrinologist at Boston University who has spent a career researching the effects of vitamin D (which is actually not a vitamin but a hormone precursor). His new book is The Vitamin D Solution (Hudson Street Press, 2010). Holick recently... (p. 32)

As director of the Maryland Robotics Center, Satyandra Gupta oversees 25 faculty members working on all things robotic: snake-inspired robots, robotic swarms, minirobots for medicine and robots for exploring extreme environments on land, under the sea and in outer space. In September the Center hosted its first Robotics Day; afterward, Gupta talked robots with Science News writer Rachel Ehrenberg. How do robots influence our lives today? There are certain scenarios, such as manufacturing — making cars, making airplanes — where people are replacing human labor with robotic devices and ... (p. 32)

This summer William Talman became president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, an organization that advocates the advancement of biological and biomedical research. He is a professor of neurology and neuroscience at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and a practicing physician at the university’s hospital and at the Iowa City Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. During a recent meeting with reporters in Washington, D.C., Talman said he plans to promote increased funding for biomedical research during his one-year term as FASEB president. In July he... (p. 32)

Thanks to the planet’s exploding population, more than a billion housing units will be built during the next half century. Many of those will be in urban areas that are vulnerable to catastrophic earthquakes such as the magnitude-7 quake that killed more than 200,000 people in Haiti in January. Roger Bilham, a seismologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder who studies the earthquake vulnerability of cities, sat down recently with Science News contributing editor Alexandra Witze to talk about why builders routinely flout earthquake-engineering regulations, and how urban residents can b... (p. 32)

Harold Kroto, who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of buckminsterfullerene (the molecules commonly known as buckyballs), is a chemist at Florida State University in Tallahassee. His research interests extend from the microworld of nanoparticles to the chemistry of interstellar space. He also campaigns for a new vision of science education, emphasizing the responsibilities that scientists have for cooperating internationally to support efforts aimed at securing a sustainable future for the planet. He spoke on such matters recently at the Euroscience Open Forum 2010 con... (p. 32)

Music perception researcher Ian Cross ponders music's nature and significance. (p. 36)