Feature
- Health & Medicine
Figuring Out Fibroids
Researchers now have a better understanding of which women develop fibroids and what causes them.
- Tech
Ocean Envy
By mimicking the flippers of penguins, whales, and dolphins, engineers hope to make ocean vessels that are as maneuverable and efficient as the marine animals.
- Earth
Paved Paradise?
The precipitation-fed runoff that spills from impervious surfaces such as buildings, roads, and parking lots in developed areas increases erosion in streams, wreaks ecological havoc there, and contributes to urban heat islands.
- Plants
Smokey the Gardener
Wildfire smoke by itself, without help from heat, can trigger germination in certain seeds, but just what the vital compound in that smoke might be has kept biologists busy for years.
- Math
A Better Distorted View
The mathematics used to describe diffusion can also be used to generate maps based on population data.
- Astronomy
Cosmic Melody
An astronomer has converted fluctuations in the density of the early universe—the seeds of the first galaxies and stars—into audible sound.
- Chemistry
Tricky Business
The way a drug crystallizes to form a solid can make or break a billion-dollar product, which explains why pharmaceutical and crystal chemists are racing to control this poorly understood process.
- Tech
When the Chips are Down
Scientists seek alternatives to a computer technology nearing its limits.
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To Err Is Human
Two researchers have issued a blunt critique of what they see as a misguided emphasis on immoral behaviors and mental flaws in many social psychology studies.
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Don’t Let the Bugs Bite
Using disease-control strategies based on genetic engineering, scientists are working to counter Chagas' disease, malaria, sleeping sickness, and other insectborne infections.
- Physics
Starting from Square One
Physicists appear to have wedded the arcane theory of quarks to cutting-edge computer science, giving themselves tools for precisely predicting properties of subatomic matter and possibly observing new physical phenomena.
- Ecosystems
Corals without Boarders
The last decade has been a great era for discovering corals in the deep ocean, but a United Nations report warns that these cold, dark reefs urgently need protection.
