Feature

  1. Buff and Brainy

    Physical exercise encourages brains to function at an optimum level, even if they're damaged or diseased.

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  2. Humans

    Evolution in Action

    Debates on the conflict between evolution and intelligent design are taking place not only in the courts but also in state legislatures and even among members of local school boards, where topics include curricula, textbooks, and the definition of science itself.

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  3. Tech

    Artificial Animalcules

    Advances that include the first swimming micromachine and novel designs for similar devices are deepening scientists' understanding of the bizarre world of microscale liquids.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Flora Horror

    A diarrhea-causing bacterium has developed new resistance to a widely used class of antibiotics and has recently become more transmissible and more deadly.

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  5. Self-Serve Brains

    New brain-imaging studies and investigations of certain types of brain damage suggest that the right hemisphere typically coordinates one's sense of being a self, with a body and a set of life experiences distinct from those of other people.

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  6. Astronomy

    Blasts from the Past

    Gamma-ray bursts may soon surpass quasars and galaxies as the most distant known objects in the universe and are likely to provide a new window on the early universe.

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  7. Earth

    A Little Less Green?

    Emerging data indicate that use of pyrethroid pesticides, even by home owners, poses significant environmental risks.

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  8. Tech

    Microbial Moxie

    Microbial fuel cells, which take advantage of the fact that some microbes generate electricity when they break down organic matter, could one day power remote sensors, wastewater-treatment plants, and portable devices.

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  9. Animals

    Just Duet

    Two or more birds in some species can sing with such coordination that a human listener would swear that it's just one singer. With audio files.

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  10. Paleontology

    First Steps

    Using materials as diverse as lobster eggs, dead birds, and the headless carcass of a rhinoceros, scientists are conducting experiments that scrutinize the first steps of the fossilization process.

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  11. Tech

    Is Anybody out There?

    To speed the search for extraterrestrial life, researchers are using extreme conditions on Earth to develop a flotilla of detection devices to tease out signs of life in unlikely places.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    In Pixels and in Health

    By simulating individual cells and their behavior inside the human body using a computer technique called agent-based modeling, scientists are gaining new insight into disease progression.

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