Feature
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- Ecosystems
Deprived of Darkness
From anecdotal reports of little-studied phenomena, researchers suspect that artificial night lighting disrupts the physiology and behavior of nocturnal animals.
- Earth
Stemming the Tide
New approaches to stopping the introduction by ships of invasive species to North American waters are beginning to show promise but have a long way to go.
- Chemistry
The True Sweet Science
New techniques and tools are helping scientists elucidate the roles that complex sugars play in the human body and in drug manufacturing.
- Health & Medicine
Aerial War against Disease
Researchers around the world are catching on to the idea of using satellites to predict where diseases may strike.
- Math
Guessing Secrets
Analyzing an intriguing variant of the familiar game of 20 questions provides insights into Internet communication.
- Animals
Lemonade from Broken Amber
The fossilized microbes found inside termites that have been encased in amber for 20 million years are remarkably similar to those found within the ancient insects' modern cousins.
- Tech
Taming High-Tech Particles
Researchers are beginning to study whether nanomaterials could have unintended negative consequences in the human body or the environment.
- Physics
The Black Hole Next Door
Microscopic black holes—fleeting replicas of the huge, matter-gobbling ones in space—may be detected soon in our atmosphere and at a big particle collider now being built.
- Earth
Water for the Rock
A long-popular theory about how Earth got wet—that the oceans are puddles left by an ancient rain of comets—doesn't seem to hold water, and new hypotheses suggest that the celestial pantry is now empty of a key ingredient in the recipe for Earth.
- Astronomy
Rethinking an Astronomical Icon
Examining the Eagle nebula's pillars of creation with infrared detectors, scientists are viewing an astronomical icon in a whole new light.
- Ecosystems
Are They Really Extinct?
A few optimists keep looking for species that might already have gone extinct.
