Feature
- Health & Medicine
When Drinking Helps
Sometimes a nip of alcohol can indeed prove therapeutic, though usually not until middle age.
- Ecosystems
Spring Forward
Scientists who study biological responses to seasonal and climatic changes have noted that the annual cycles for many organisms are beginning earlier on average, as global temperatures rise.
- Earth
A Safe Solution
A home-based technique for treating microbe-contaminated water with chlorine solution could save millions of lives in countries that are currently unable to provide residents with safe drinking water.
- Astronomy
Mature Before Their Time
Some galaxies were in place and forming stars at a prolific rate when the universe, now 13.7 billion years old, was just an 800-million-year-old whippersnapper.
- Math
Knotty Calculations
An alternative approach to quantum computing takes advantage of space-time knots and braids.
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Mining the Mouse
Recent analyses of the mouse genome illuminate human health and evolution.
- Earth
Proof of Burden
Two teams of scientists report that the blood and urine of most Americans contain toxic cocktails of metals, artificial hormones, and chemical ingredients of plastics, flame retardants, pesticides, herbicides, and disinfectants.
- Tech
NanoLights! Camera! Action!
Fluorescent particles of semiconductors are giving biologists a new view of cells and proteins.
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How the Butterfly Gets Its Spots
The spots on a butterfly wing turn out to be unusually good model systems for a range of disciplines from genetics to behavioral ecology, offering biologists a chance to paint the really big picture of how evolution works.
- Health & Medicine
Dietary Dilemmas
Low-carbohydrate diets, such as the Atkins diet, could be more effective for weight loss than low-fat diets are.
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Essence of g
New efforts to probe the biology of intelligence stir up a long-running controversy over what mental tests actually measure.
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Genghis Khan’s Legacy?
Genghis Kahn's military success 800 years ago may have spread a particular form of the Y chromosome, one he may have himself carried.
