A new study of lynx in North America suggests the animals interbreed widely, sometimes with populations thousands of kilometers away. (p. 67)

Alcohol appears to reduce aging drinkers' risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and other forms of age-related dementia. (p. 67)

By using a technology that reveals patterns of gene activity in tumor cells, researchers can detect breast cancers that are likely to spread and become deadly. (p. 68)

Researchers are decorating viruses with a variety of molecules, making the microbes into potential building blocks in electronic circuits and new materials, as well as tools in biomedical therapies. (p. 68)

The explosion of nearby supernova may have caused the widespread extinction of marine life on Earth 2 million years ago. (p. 69)

A common tropical tree creates farms in its buds, where it raises its own work force of tiny pollinators. (p. 69)

A panel of judges announced the 40 finalists in the 61st annual Intel Science Talent Search. (p. 70)

A new compound, part of a family of proteins that regulate fat transport, lowers the risk of developing heart disease and diabetes in monkeys. (p. 77)

Research on probiotic bacteria—living microbes that confer health benefits when introduced into the body—offers growing medical promise. (p. 72)

Scientists are using fractals, mathematical forms that can describe objects with fractional dimensions, to model phenomena such as wildfire propagation and the spread of toxic fluids through rocks and soil. (p. 75)

A casual observation about the edges of popped balloons may have led researchers to previously unknown features of the most common and least understood types of fractures. (p. 77)

Twenty-two state legislatures passed bills in 2001 addressing agricultural biotechnology, which concerns the development of genetically modified crops. (p. 77)

As part of an ongoing survey of faint stars in the southern skies, astronomers have discovered 12 previously unknown stars that lie within a mere 33 light-years of Earth. (p. 77)

Scientists have developed a new way to estimate the evaporation of water from large reservoirs that, if adopted, would replace a labor-intensive procedure based on decades-old technology. (p. 78)

The National Weather Service is now testing new computer-generated voices that will be used in the agency's broadcasts of severe storm warnings on NOAA Weather Radio. (p. 78)

An analysis of recent outbreaks of an often fatal disease in Peru may strengthen a link between the malady and the warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean known as El Niño. (p. 78)