Feature

  1. Health & Medicine

    Palm-Nut Problem

    The ancient custom of chewing areca nuts is getting more popular as young Asians take up the habit, but betel-nut chewing has been linked to several types of oral cancer.

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  2. Proteins in the Stretch

    Scientists are for the first time getting a feel for how proteins fold and unfold.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Food Colorings

    Many deeply hued plant pigments appear to offer health benefits, from fighting heart disease and obesity to preserving memory.

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  4. Tech

    Frankenstein’s Chips

    As evidence mounts that drug-safety trials can miss dangerous effects, scientists are building living, miniature models of animals and people to enhance drug and chemical tests.

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  5. Earth

    Hidden Canyons

    Among Earth's unsung geological masterpieces are undersea canyons, some of which stretch hundreds of kilometers and can be deep enough to hold skyscrapers.

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  6. Materials Science

    Concrete Nation

    From ultrahigh-performance concrete that bends like metal to concrete blocks that transmit light, scientists are pushing the physical and architectural limits of this ubiquitous construction material.

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  7. Humans

    Science News of the Year 2004

    A review of important scientific achievements reported in Science News during the year 2004.

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  8. Humans

    Science News Challenge

    Try the Science News current-events crossword puzzle.

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  9. Animals

    Song Fights

    Birds settle many of their disputes by some rough-and-tough singing bouts, and recording equipment now lets researchers pick a song fight, too.

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  10. Physics

    An Electron Runs through It

    Now that physicists can observe electrons beneath the surface of microchips, they have uncovered electron-flow patterns that are both surprising and visually startling, as well as new details of electron behavior that may lead to faster electronics and quantum computing.

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  11. Sit, Stay, Speak

    If dogs could verbally comment on the scientific study of canine minds and how they really think, it might sound something like this.

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  12. Astronomy

    Explosive Tales

    Four hundred years after the explosion of the Kepler supernova, the last such stellar eruption in our galaxy, astronomers have examined the supernova's remnant with state-of-the-art telescopes that view it in infrared, optical, and X-ray light.

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