All Stories
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Planetary ScienceSmall exoplanet discovered
Astronomers have discovered the smallest planet known that is beyond the solar system and orbits an ordinary parent body.
By Ron Cowen -
SpaceMaking an impression
In its seventh day after successfully landing on the Red Planet, the Phoenix Lander digs its first trench and is ready to start its ice-hunting.
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Health & MedicineMicrobes clean up mercury
Researchers think a microbe could clean up mercury-laced Native American artifacts.
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LifeReplaying evolution
By watching bacteria evolve in the lab for 20 years, researchers show that evolution may be rather capricious.
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MathCommunities of Communities of …
A new approach to network theory focusing on the subcommunities within networks may shed light on everything from food webs to terrorist cells. It may even act as an oracle, helping scientists identify connections within a network they haven’t yet seen.
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HumansFostering gains
New studies indicate that abused and neglected kids benefit from living with relatives and from high-quality foster care services.
By Bruce Bower -
AgricultureGreen Living, Chinese-Style
Chinese is developing eco-cities to take their citizens straight from the agricultural to the ecological age.
By Janet Raloff -
EarthNatural heat
Heat from the decay of radioactive elements deep within the planet could meet Earth’s energy needs almost three times over — if we could harness all of it.
By Sid Perkins -
Health & MedicineA Faulty Eye Witness: Hallucinations
Treatment for Oliver Sacks' cancer damaged an eye and triggered something he never expected: his brain to display things that simply didn’t exist.
By Janet Raloff -
Health & MedicineA Faulty Eye Witness, Part I
Oliver Sacks shared observations from his latest journal on how losing sight in one eye changed a man's life. Sacks had intimate knowledge of every detail – because he’s the patient.
By Janet Raloff -
Planetary ScienceDispatch from Mars, Sol 4
The good news is a tentative sighting of ice by the Mars Phoenix Lander. The bad news is the discovery of a glitch in the system that will analyze soil samples.
By Ron Cowen -
ChemistryDeciding Who’s First
Oxygen serves as the focus of who to credit with a discovery – and why.
By Janet Raloff