A French team has created the first mini-origami figures that fold themselves around droplets of water. (p. 270)

Our solar system's periodic motion from one side of the galaxy to the other could expose life on Earth to massive amounts of cosmic rays and cause recurring, catastrophic mass extinctions. (p. 244)

Experiments have given additional evidence that a future generation of X-ray sources called free-electron lasers may be able to image single biomolecules. (p. 253)

The wavelike behavior of energy in chlorophyll might explain how plants are so efficient at using solar energy. (p. 229)

The physics of pedestrian flows could help prevent stampedes such as the one that killed hundreds during a pilgrimage to Mecca in 2006. (p. 213)

A new type of fuel cell uses natural enzymes to produce small amounts of electricity from sugar. (p. 197)

Invisibility cloaks may be a long shot, but new optical tricks could help in the design of future computers. (p. 180)

Physicists can now observe matter as it gradually turns into a Bose-Einstein condensate—the exotic state of matter that displays quantum behavior at macroscopic scales. (p. 164)