An extra copy of one gene slims down tomatoes. (p. 189)

Roundworms, yeast, and humans share more than a dozen genes linked to aging. (p. 164)

An fMRI scan of the brain can tell what photograph a subject is looking at. (p. 173)

A material inspired by sea cucumbers morphs from rigid to soft. (p. 173)

Corals in the western Pacific have escaped bleaching linked to rising ocean temperatures. (p. 158)

Nineteenth-century settlers left a dusty mark on the West. Rocky Mountain lake deposits reveal that America's westward expansion kicked huge amounts of dirt into the air—probably from livestock grazing.A team led by Jason Neff, a biogeochemist at the University of Colorado in Boulder, examined soil cores from the beds of tiny mountain lakes in Colorado's San Juan Mountains. The cores captured soil and dust deposited in the lake over 5,000 years. The chemical makeup of the cores was nothing like the surrounding bedrock, suggesting that the dirt came from hundreds of kilometers away, Neff s... (p. 157)

A single scent moves female fruit files to swoon and males to flee. The difference, new research shows, is in the brain's wiring.Male flies on the prowl put out a pheromone called cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA) that both sexes detect with scent-sensing cells on their antennae.To explain how cVA prompts such different reactions in male and female flies, researchers traced the circuitry of the cells connecting the antennae to the brain. In the brain, the cells branch out and make connections with other neurons. The researchers discovered that wiring between the cVA–detecting cells and the brain... (p. 157)

Warming waters could push new predators into Antarctica's delicate ecosystems. (p. 141)

The African naked mole-rat doesn't feel pain from acid or chilies, a possible adaptation to its cramped underground habitat. (p. 68)

Mauna Loa, Hawaii's most massive volcano, may be splitting the Earth's crust. (p. 78)

By reshuffling the chemical letters of the genetic code, scientists have made short strands of DNA that can distinguish several different smells, such as explosives and food preservatives. (p. 77)