Excavations at a 4,600-year-old village in southern England indicate that it was occupied by the builders of nearby Stonehenge and hosted feasts where people assembled before transporting the dead to the huge circle of stones, which served as an ancestor memorial. (p. 67)

Construction debris strewn across the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina contains a disturbing amount of arsenic that could contaminate groundwater if not properly managed. (p. 67)

The sharpest, most sensitive camera on the aging Hubble Space Telescope has stopped working. (p. 68)

Diseases caused by misfolded proteins called prions can be reversed if caught early enough, experiments in mice suggest. (p. 68)

An Asian snake gets toxins by salvaging them from the poisonous toads it eats. (p. 69)

Ripples in space-time may soon give scientists a glimpse of the universe as it looked a tiny fraction of a second after its birth. (p. 69)

Twenty young women and 20 young men aced an early challenge in their scientific careers by becoming finalists in the annual Intel Science Talent Search. (p. 70)

Today's combination of nuclear proliferation, political instability, and urban demographics increases the likelihood that humankind could suffer a devastating nuclear winter. (p. 72)

Researchers are developing new coatings that incorporate multiple functions, offer chemical reactivity, or act in response to stimuli in the environment. (p. 75)

A long-term study in New Zealand indicates that child abuse leads to a disruption of part of the stress response in adulthood that has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and chronic lung disease. (p. 77)

A new family of magnets may be a first step toward organic versions of the familiar metal objects. (p. 77)

A minimally invasive procedure to cure uterine fibroids is less expensive, but also appears to be less effective, than surgery. (p. 77)

An herbal-tea remedy for malaria contains a component that may form the basis of a novel drug against the disease. (p. 77)

Strong expansion of the U.S. corn-to-ethanol industry, now under way, stands poised to divert much of the grain from food uses to transportation fuel. (p. 78)

Engineers looking to make a variety of surfaces whiter and brighter could learn a few things from a lowly beetle. (p. 78)

Researchers found that, for one kind of particle at least, being located inside a nucleus slightly reduces its mass. (p. 78)

A common estrogen-mimicking chemical can damage eggs while an animal is still in the womb. (p. 78)

(p. 79)