All Stories

  1. Life

    Bacteria in bondage

    Cells unleash proteins to cage unwanted invaders.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Scooters save lives of snakebite victims

    Nepal project achieves dramatic drop in deaths by using motorbike helpers to rush the stricken to hospital.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    E. coli evade detection by going dormant

    When stressed, bacteria can temporarily turn comatose and dodge germ-screening tests.

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  4. Space

    Distant world looks ripe for life

    Extrasolar planet hunt spots its most Earthlike orb yet.

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  5. Humans

    DNA highlights Native American die-off

    A genetic analysis points to widespread New World deaths after Europeans arrived.

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  6. Science & Society

    Scientists’ TV image isn’t really as diabolical as they sometimes worry

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  7. Life

    Vying for the title of World’s Fastest Cell

    Scientists film 58 kinds of mobile cells to study movement — and to have a little fun.

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  8. Humans

    Saving the Last Supper

    Tourists and cosmetics seem to be threatening da Vinci’s masterpiece.

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  9. Earth

    Arctic has taken a turn for the warmer

    Northern climate has changed substantially in the last five years, and the shift is probably permanent.

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  10. Humans

    Neandertals’ mammoth building project

    Stone Age people’s evolutionary cousins may have constructed earliest bone structures.

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  11. Find “extinct” fish alive in South African waters

    A “living fossil” gets new family members as more coelacanths turn up.

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  12. Letters

    Predators inspire poetry and fear Regarding “Lopped off” (SN: 11/5/11, p. 26): One of the Tao Te Ching’s chapters (excerpt below) is very prescient on the unintended consequences of human behavior. It was written around 500 B.C., long before our innovative abilities threatened the entire planet. It is ironic that science both leads to innovations […]

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