Feature
- Plants
They’re All Part Fungus
Hidden deep in their tissues, all plants probably have fungi that don't make them sick but still may have a big influence.
- Physics
Revealing Covert Actions
The recent merger of high-speed video technology and centuries-old techniques for seeing ordinarily invisible fluctuations of the air is enabling engineers to visualize and study the previously unseen, large-scale behavior of shock waves in explosions and aerodynamics research.
- Materials Science
Spin City
Researchers are using a technique called electrospinning to create fibrous mats that have potential applications in drug delivery, wound care, and tissue engineering.
- Earth
Uncharted Territory
Ultraslow-spreading undersea ridges are giving oceanographers fresh insights into how Earth's crust forms.
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Thugs and Bugs
With some laboratory detective work, scientists are discovering how various pathogens interact with their targets.
- Animals
That’s One Weird Tooth
The narwhal's distinctive spiral tusk has structures that could make it phenomenally sensitive, raising new questions about its functions.
- Materials Science
Making the Most of It
A recent crop of studies demonstrates how nature finds strength in unlikely places.
- Paleontology
Out of the Shadows
An ongoing flurry of fossil finds is triggering a reevaluation of how early mammals and their close kin eked out an existence during the Age of Dinosaurs.
- Ecosystems
Light All Night
New digital images demonstrate that artificial light from urban areas penetrates deep into some of America's most remote wild places, where it may disrupt ecosystems that have evolved with a nightly quota of darkness.
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Prescription for Controversy
Increasing concerns about the efficacy and safety of a popular class of antidepressant drugs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, especially in depressed youth, has sparked regulatory action and scientific debate.
- Astronomy
Peeling Back Orion’s Layers
By studying the most detailed portrait ever assembled of the Orion nebula, astronomers hope to glean new insights about star birth throughout the galaxy.
- Math
All Square
Mathematicians nail down when it's possible to express numbers as the sums of squares.
