All Stories

  1. Health & Medicine

    Vitamin E might limit Alzheimer’s decline

    A trial of vitamin E in elderly veterans with Alzheimer’s shows promise for those in the early stages of the disease.

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  2. Ecosystems

    New Yorkers should relax about new roach species

    Japanese roaches may be able to survive in the cold, but the added competition and their decreased allergic potential may mean the roaches’ arrival isn’t all bad.

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  3. Plants

    Kleptoplast

    A cellular part such as a light-harvesting chloroplast that an organism takes from algae it has eaten.

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  4. Physics

    Tea time

    Leave it to the English to solve the mystery of a tea kettle’s whistle.

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  5. Tech

    Reader favorites of 2013

    For this issue, the editors selected the 25 most important and intriguing science stories of the year. But online readers seemed to point to a different bunch, showing just how subjective such an exercise can be.

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  6. Cosmology

    Best maps of the universe, bugs and all

    Maps from the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite reveal the cosmos in a range of microwave and infrared frequencies.

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  7. Animals

    Unusual new species names of 2013

    Here are five species with tongue-twister titles.

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  8. Genetics

    Top genomes of 2013

    Scientists continue to decode the genetic blueprints of the planet’s myriad flora and fauna.

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  9. Astronomy

    Top exoplanet finds of 2013

    Here are some of the year’s most notable finds.

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  10. Microbes

    Microscopic menagerie

    The microbes dwelling in and on multicellular organisms should be viewed as evolutionarily inseparable from their hosts, some biologists argue.

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  11. Humans

    Mother lode

    Certain sugar molecules in human breast milk do more to foster beneficial microbes, and banish harmful ones, than they do to nourish newborns.

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  12. Microbes

    The vast virome

    When it comes to the microbiome, bacteria get all the press. But virologists are starting to realize that their subjects also do a lot more than make people sick.

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