The ability to hear and see rapidly changing stimuli may underlie reading skills, raising the possibility of new approaches to reading instruction. (p. 180)

Injections of olfactory ensheathing glial cells from the brain help severed spinal cords heal in rats. (p. 180)

A project on encrypting words within a strand of DNA won the top prize at the Intel Science Talent Search. (p. 181)

A new fuel cell that runs on hydrocarbons such as natural gas, butane, and diesel instead of hydrogen could be an efficient, practical way to generate power without pollution. (p. 181)

Experiments with a liquid crystal may confirm the 50-year-old prediction that a nearly unlimited number of facets of different orientations can simultaneously decorate a crystal surface. (p. 182)

A fungus that attacks only the male flowers on the chempedak fruit tree seems to be the edible reward for pollinators—the first fungus discovered to play such a role in pollination. (p. 182)

By detecting sound waves that have traveled through the sun, two physicists have for the first time found a way to view disturbances on the sun's hidden half, providing a glimpse of stormy weather patterns a week to 10 days before they come into view. (p. 183)

Changing land-use practices—especially in forests, croplands, and fallow areas—appear to play a far bigger role than anticipated in determining how much carbon gets removed from the air by vegetation. (p. 183)

A material etched with tiny, carefully shaped pores can act like an artificial enzyme, cell membrane, or receptor. (p. 186)

Preliminary studies indicate that moderate consumption of chocolate products may offer cardiovascular benefits. (p. 188)

A mushroom epidemic in Brazilian cacao trees, which has cut the production of cacao by 25 percent in 5 years, may be treatable with another fungus. (p. 184)

Scientists are concerned about new forms of antibiotic resistance cropping up in fire blight—a deadly disease of apple trees. (p. 184)

Learning the taste of nutritious food pays off in a boost to fitness, even for a grasshopper. (p. 184)

A pheromone that helps drive locusts into a swarm comes from bacteria in their gut. (p. 184)

An ant will ignore a single golden egg bug and attack a mating pair, a choice that may explain why singles hang around pairs. (p. 184)

Genetically engineered bacteria may stop tooth decay by replacing the ones in the mouth that destroy tooth enamel. (p. 190)

The search is on for an undersea eruption near the Japanese volcanic island chain. (p. 191)

Scientists have recently discovered a 10,000-year-old forest buried in the sand in Michigan. (p. 191)

A single photon confined to a tiny, mirror-lined cavity becomes electrically strong enough to swing an atom in loops. (p. 191)

Preferring neon to nicotine, magnetic-fusion reactors called tokamaks get a performance boost from puffs of the noble gas. (p. 191)