Feature

  1. Health & Medicine

    The Long Road to Beta Cells

    In their quest to cure type 1 diabetes, scientists are finding that turning stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells is a lot harder than it first appeared.

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  2. Ecosystems

    Prairie Revival

    Prairie restoration is attracting interest, but because so little long-term monitoring and comparative studies have been done, researchers are still wondering whether it's really possible to re-create a prairie.

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  3. Agriculture

    Lettuce Liability

    A new industry program to self-regulate most salad producers is forcing affected farmers to choose between adopting measures unfriendly to wildlife and a loss of major markets for their greens.

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  4. Archaeology

    Muons Meet the Maya

    Physicists are exploring the use of muons generated by cosmic rays to explore Mayan archaeological sites and to probe the interiors of volcanoes and shipping containers.

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  5. Archaeology

    Rolling Back the Years

    Scientists are refining carbon dating techniques to make the archaeological timeline more precise.

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  6. Earth

    Hey, What about Us?

    The plight of polar bears may get most of the attention as climate change disrupts the Arctic ice, but plenty of other species, from walrus and seals to one-celled specks, are also going to see their world change radically.

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  7. Tech

    Bad Vibrations

    Despite computer models and wind tunnel tests, bridges show surprising vibrations and movements that engineers are still learning to cope with.

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  8. Showdown at Sex Gap

    Faced with two contrasting reports on the science of sex differences in mathematics and science aptitude, researchers at a meeting held in October tried to figure out what's really known about this controversy and how the findings apply to education and test taking.

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  9. Physics

    Shadow World

    Physicists have found new evidence for a 10-year-old conjecture that bridges the gap between the many-dimensional space of string theory and more familiar theorizing.

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  10. Paleontology

    Back from the Dead?

    The long-term disappearance of creatures from the fossil record and their later reemergence can provide insights into ancient environmental conditions and the trustworthiness of the fossil record itself.

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  11. Ecosystems

    Tortoise Genes and Island Beings

    Geneticists and conservation biologists are joining forces to untangle the evolutionary history of giant Galápagos tortoises and to safeguard the animals' future.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Mother Knows All

    Fragments of a fetus' genetic material that leak into a pregnant woman's bloodstream reveal details of early fetal development.

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