Feature
- Earth
Shifting Sands
Sand dunes can provide scientists with clues about ancient patterns of wind and precipitation.
- Chemistry
Hydrogen: The Next Generation
Researchers are looking for more sustainable ways to generate hydrogen, which burns cleanly but is typically made from fossil fuel.
- Earth
Clipping the Fin Trade
New research and policy developments aim to curb the wasteful and gruesome practice of killing sharks solely for their fins.
- Tech
Ribbon to the Stars
Advances in one of the tiniest of technologies—carbon nanotubes—is bringing the concept of a space elevator closer to reality.
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A Man’s Job
Sperm contain an unexpected payload of RNA, a discovery offering insight into infertility, cloning, and contraception.
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Get Rid of the Bodies
Scientists are learning how organisms safely clear out cell corpses.
- Materials Science
Materials with Memory
Metal alloys and polymers that can remember a preprogrammed shape may literally reshape technologies ranging from warfare to medicine and car repair.
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Evolutionary Upstarts
Theories of the evolution of the human mind are evolving, with some researchers now presenting alternatives to the dominant notion that genetic competition for survival during the Stone Age yielded brains stocked with a bevy of instincts for specific types of thinking.
- Plants
The Wood Detective
Alex Wiedenhoeft belongs to the elite profession of wood identifier, the person to call when a crime investigator, museum curator, archaeologist, or patent attorney with an unusual client really needs to know what that splinter really is.
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Save Our Sounds
Some 14 libraries around the world have built up substantial collections of natural sounds, from bird songs to fish hums.
- Health & Medicine
Targeted Therapies
Tailoring prescriptions based on a person's genes may help reduce side effects and allow the development of more personalized medicine.
- Tech
Pocket Sockets
Keenly aware of user frustration with the short-lived batteries in cell phones and other portable electronics, researchers are rushing to work out the bugs in tiny fuel-cell power plants that will be as small as batteries—but last a lot longer and be refuelable.
