Feature
- Astronomy
An Illuminating Journey
Astronomers are beginning to use the cosmic microwave background, the remnant glow from the Big Bang, in a dramatically different way: Instead of treating it as a snapshot of the early universe, researchers are proposing to employ the radiation as a flashlight that probes the evolution of structure in the universe over its entire 13-billion-year history.
- Health & Medicine
Coming to Terms with Death
Some newly recognized forms of cell death might be harnessed to aid people with cancer and other serious diseases.
- Math
Surprisingly Square
Mathematicians take a fresh look at expressing numbers as the sums of squares.
- Physics
Pitching Science
A new computer model of baseball pitching helps give pitching robots humanlike abilities and may have enabled engineers to solve a half-century-old puzzle of baseball science.
- Paleontology
Beyond Bones
The forensic analysis of trace fossils such as footprints, nests, burrows, and even coprolites—fossilized feces—reveal subtle clues about ancient species, their behavior, and their environment.
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- Anthropology
Evolution’s Youth Movement
The fossils of ancient children may provide insights into the evolution of modern Homo sapiens.
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A Fly Called Iyaiyai
All that Latin has its light side.
- Astronomy
Captured on Camera: Are They Planets?
Studying several groups of nearby, newborn stars–many of which weren't known until a few years ago–researchers may soon obtain the first image of a bona fide planet orbiting a star other than our sun.
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A More Perfect Union
Forsaking life in the outside world, endosymbiotic bacteria of some insects traded freedom and nutrients for life inside a cell.
- Chemistry
Cosmic Chemistry Gets Creative
By simulating extraterrestrial impacts on Earth, researchers are firing away at the question of how life started.
