Feature
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Faster, Cheaper, Better
Methods now under development could make DNA sequencing quicker and less expensive, paving the way for the day when treatments can be tailored to each person's genetic profile.
- Materials Science
Taken for a Spin
Considering silk from the spider's perspective may offer the best chance of replicating these creatures' tough threads.
- Health & Medicine
A Gasping Heart
A common imperfection in the structure of the heart may exacerbate obstructive sleep apnea and, in mountaineers, trigger a life-threatening lung condition called high-altitude pulmonary edema.
- Tech
Pictures Posing Questions
Radical new forms of photography use computation to transcend the limits of traditional cameras.
- Earth
Fits and Starts
New data identify some factors that influence the highly variable flow rates of ice streams, the megaglaciers that carry most of Antarctica's ice to the sea.
- Animals
Honey, I Ate the Kids
Some of the most devoted parents in the animal kingdom routinely devour some of their own children.
- Anthropology
Mysterious Migrations
Controversial new studies report that modern humans from Africa launched cultural advances in Europe at least 36,000 years ago and reached what's now western Russia more than 40,000 years ago.
- Astronomy
Ticket to Ride?
Astronomers are investigating how they might jump on NASA's lunar bandwagon, using the moon or its environs to study distant stars and galaxies.
- Computing
Games Theory
Online games can not only entertain but also provide valuable data for researchers tackling computer-vision and other tough computational problems.
- Agriculture
Herbal Herbicides
Scientists are tapping plants, and the self-defense chemicals they make, for new weed killers, many of which may find use in organic farming.
- Health & Medicine
Long-Term Threat
Survivors of a childhood cancer face a sixfold risk of developing a new cancer later in life, compared with people in the general population.
- Earth
Not-So-Perma Frost
The world's warming climate, as well as ecological shifts in the timing and frequency of wildfires in boreal forests, pose an increasing threat to Arctic permafrost.
