Understanding long-term changes in wildfire patterns challenges scientists from multiple disciplines. (p. 26)

When assembling a jigsaw puzzle, just shaking up the box and dumping the pieces in a pile probably isn’t the best strategy. The pieces won’t fit themselves together by chance. But in the nanoworld, this approach could prove surprisingly fruitful. It might take the fun out of doing the puzzle, but scientists are now figuring out how to make the pieces move, on their own, into the desired positions for creating new materials. In this case, the puzzle pieces are nanoparticles, tiny collections of atoms smaller than one ten-thousandth of a millimeter across. Properly guided, these particle... (p. 20)

New report outlines features that make a reef able to deal with environmental stress.

NOAA releases new predictions for solar cycle. (p. 14)

Satellite-tagging data suggest that basking sharks migrate south to the Caribbean in winter. (p. 12)

Largest genetic study of African populations yields clues about the origin of modern humans and the ancestry of African-Americans (p. 10)

From Danny Devito to Yao Ming, the world is filled with short people and tall people and everyone in between. While factors such as nutrition influence height differences, much of that variation depends on genes. After all, both of Ming’s parents were basketball stars, and Devito’s were not. But the genes that made Ming grow to 7 feet 6 inches and Devito stop growing several feet shorter could be important for more than sports. Changes in how height genes work could not only add or subtract a few centimeters from leg length, but could also affect underlying cell biology in ways that ca... (p. 22)

A fossil skeleton discovered in the Canadian Arctic could represent a missing link in pinniped evolution. (p. 14)

Fossilized pollen could show that modern land plants evolved earlier than thought.

New chemical analyses of wine jars suggest that ancient Egyptians mixed medicinal plants into wine.

Researchers point to the early ocean's concentration of nickel as the possible start for events that allowed Earth's atmosphere to accumulate oxygen. (p. 14)

Viruses — the biological kind — could be used to construct more efficient, environmentally friendly lithium ion batteries (p. 12)

For the first time, researchers followed an asteroid from space to its crash into Earth, providing the opportunity to study an asteroid in a new way. (p. 13)

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar releases a review of U.S. bird populations.