A melting Arctic shifts atmospheric patterns across much of the Northern Hemisphere, causing severe weather elsewhere. (p. 11)

Anybody can find out how to crack the codes protecting your bank transfers and online credit card purchases. The step-by-step instructions for stripping away the secrecy were published years ago. Nobody is very worried about a possible security breach, though, because the code-cracking formula runs only on quantum computers. These contraptions, which exploit the rules governing the fuzzy world of quantum mechanics, have so far remained laboratory curiosities, less powerful than a slide rule. New blueprints could change all that. Rival technologies that have steadily matured in recent years â... (p. 26)

Using fruit found in Siberia’s permafrost, scientists grow oldest flowering specimen ever produced from preserved tissue. (p. 15)

The post-9/11 quiet in Atlantic shipping lanes calmed the biggest marine mammals, hormone measurements suggest.

Frozen moss suggests climate cooling kicked off fast, possibly with help from volcanic eruptions. (p. 12)

Western Australian reefs are faring better than their eastern counterparts, at least for now. (p. 15)