Feature

  1. Earth

    Muddy Waters

    Even though human activities such as agriculture and deforestation are sending more sediment into streams and rivers, less of that material is reaching river deltas, a trend that exacerbates problems such as subsidence and coastal erosion.

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  2. Learning to Listen

    Disparate groups of creatures, including bats, toothed whales, and birds, have evolved biological sonar that they use to track prey, but other creatures have evolved ways to detect this sonar and thereby increase their odds of survival.

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  3. Materials Science

    Something to Chew On

    Researchers are closer than ever to making synthetic enamel to improve dental implants and perhaps to grow a whole tooth from scratch.

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  4. Ecosystems

    Decades of Dinner

    Sunken whale carcasses support unique marine ecosystems that display stages of succession and change, just as land ecosystems do.

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  5. Tech

    Radio-a-Wreck

    Radio transmitters broadcasting from imploding buildings are informing engineers about how such collapses disrupt radio communications and how rescuers might overcome those disruptions.

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  6. Planetary Science

    The Huygens Chronicles

    After several months of painstaking work analyzing data from the Huygens probe, planetary scientists are able to see the surface of Saturn's moon Titan in greater detail than ever before.

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  7. Read All about It

    Brain studies and cross-cultural investigations indicate that the neural path to becoming a good reader varies, depending on a person's inherent capacity for assessing print and on the design principles of his or her native writing system.

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  8. Tech

    Special Treatment

    Researchers are developing nanosize metallic particles that can break down soil and groundwater contaminants faster and more cheaply than any other existing technology.

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  9. Astronomy

    Dark Influence

    A study of galaxy clusters tests whether dark matter particles can collide with each other, while other observations show that dark matter doesn't behave as expected near the centers of galaxies.

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  10. Math

    Navigating Celestial Currents

    Mathematicians are creating an atlas of solar system highways along which spacecraft can coast using no fuel.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    The Race to Prescribe

    Race-based medicine could be a stepping-stone to the higher goal of targeting medicines toward the genetics of individual patients, but some researchers are troubled by the implications of practicing medicine according to patients' racial identities.

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  12. Code of Many Colors

    Researchers have yet to find markers for race in the genome, but understanding the biology underlying perceptions of race could have dramatic social and personal consequences.

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