Quantum states of record numbers of atoms—entire atom clouds—get blended together by physicists wielding a new, relatively simple technique in quantum telecommunications and computing. (p. 196)

A crippled NASA probe successfully navigated close enough to Comet Borrelly to capture and beam home black-and-white and infared images of its nucleus and new data about ions and other particles that radiate from it. (p. 196)

Isotopic analysis of architectural timbers from ancient dwellings in the U.S. Southwest has shown from which distant forests the massive logs came. (p. 197)

Meerkat pups growing up in large, cooperative groups are heftier because there are more adults to entreat for food. (p. 197)

Even before they begin to carry blood, blood vessels provide signals that help spark the development of organs such as the liver. (p. 198)

Soft, dry surfaces in hospitals can harbor live germs for more than a month. (p. 198)

Compounds called avicins extracted from Acacia victoriae, an Australian desert tree, inhibit inflammation and cancer in test-tube and mouse studies. (p. 199)

Human ancestors lived in northeastern Asia about 1.36 million years ago, making it the oldest confirmed occupation site in eastern Asia. (p. 199)

Analyses suggest that dust has profound, complex, and far-reaching effects on the planet's climate. (p. 200)

Relying solely on a gravitational mirage rather than visible images, astronomers have discovered a previously unknown cluster of galaxies and measured its distance from Earth. (p. 203)

Astronomers have for the first time found a gravitational lens in which the image of a distant galaxy has been split into six distinct images. (p. 203)

A rare, carbon-rich meteorite that fell into a frozen Canadian lake last year ranks as the most pristine of such specimens ever found. (p. 203)

Despite the July 20 failure of its mission to test the unfurling of a solar sail in a suborbital trajectory, the Planetary Society announced plans in late August to conduct a second test of a sail-propelled craft. (p. 203)

As evidence accumulates for the existence of brain cells that handle many types of sensory information, some scientists challenge the popular notion that perception is grounded in five separate senses. (p. 204)

Analyses of smoke from the destroyed World Trade Center towers indicated little risk that the fires would cause significant health effects for cleanup crews and city residents. (p. 207)

The European Union has provisionally voted to ban the use and importation of nearly all members of a family of flame retardants known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers. (p. 207)

Soil particles from Africa, raining out from clouds over the Americas, may trigger the first steps that lead to toxic red-tide algal blooms off Florida. (p. 207)