All Stories

  1. Humans

    Water’s Edge Ancestors

    Human evolution’s tide may have turned on lake and sea shores.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    One problem, many paths

    Autism’s many genetic players may act through common networks.

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  3. BOOK REVIEW: Eruptions That Shook the World by Clive Oppenheimer

    Review by Alexandra Witze.

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  4. BOOK REVIEW: Weeds: In Defense of Nature’s Most Unloved Plants by Richard Mabey

    Review by Sid Perkins.

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  5. Avian Architecture: How Birds Design, Engineer, and Buildby Peter Goodfellow

    A browsable, amply illustrated overview of avian construction from mere scrapes in the sand to edible structures people prize for soup. Princeton Univ. Press, 2011, 160 p., $27.95

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  6. The Mathematics of Life by Ian Stewart

    In this engaging overview, a mathematician describes how the field of biomathematics is answering key questions about the natural world and the origins of life. Basic Books, 2011, 358 p., $27.99

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  7. Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut’s Journey to the Moon by Al Worden with Francis French

    An astronaut offers a candid look at his trip to the moon, including the scandal that ended his space­faring days. Smithsonian Books, 2011, 304 p., $29.95

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  8. The Sun’s Heartbeat: And Other Stories from the Life of the Star That Powers Our Planet by Bob Berman

    Light-hearted tales trace human understanding of Earth’s nearest star and of the sun’s effects on Earth. Little, Brown and Co., 2011, 304 p., $25.99

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  9. War’s Waste: Rehabilitation in World War I America by Beth Linker

    An account of  how World War I influenced veteran medical treatment delves into the rise of  rehabilitation therapy and the costs of supporting wounded veterans. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2011, 291 p., $35

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  10. Letters

    Prescient sci-fi It took the Science News editor in chief to recognize the most prescient science “fiction” movie of all time, Forbidden Planet (“Science brings real life to the technologies of fiction,” SN: 7/2/11, p. 2). Beyond civilization without instrumentalities, the film also brought us lasers before there were masers, Robby [the Robot] analyzing molecular […]

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  11. Russians Dig to Reach Below Earth’s Crust

    During the space race, U.S. and Soviet teams also engaged in a less-famous contest — to drill down to the boundary between the Earth’s crust and mantle.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Body & Brain

    Sour news for cranberries, libido-sapping drugs, the social brain and more in this week’s news

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