Feature
- Astronomy
Mining the Sky
A proposed national virtual observatory, a mammoth computer database integrating spectra, images, and other information covering the entire sky, could usher in a new age of discovery in astronomy.
- Earth
A Nation Aflame
In the wake of one of the worst fire seasons in the past 50 years, scientists are assessing risk as more people move into fire-prone areas and developing ways to better predict the behavior of--and the potential for--wildfires.
- Materials Science
From Metal Bars to Candy Bars
Materials scientists have turned the tools of their trade on some of the most familiar substances in the world: food.
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Into the Mystic
Scientists confront the hazy realm of spiritual enlightenment.
- Health & Medicine
Statins Take On the Brain
Cholesterol-lowering drugs may also treat or prevent Alzheimer's disease.
- Tech
Hop . . . Hop . . . Hopbots!
Two prototype jumping robots that hop, crash-and-land, and then hop again are demonstrating a novel mobility concept that may finally enable small, cheap robots to roam widely over rough terrain.
- Chemistry
The End of Good Science?
Some chemists are sharing their research results more quickly and broadly as they begin to venture into electronic archives, where they can immediately post new, unreviewed papers, as physicists have done for a decade; others think such archives could mean the end of reliable chemistry research.
- Health & Medicine
Medicinal Mimicry
While researchers tease out the mechanisms behind the ability of inert pills and sham procedures to trigger health benefits, the ethics of using such placebos in medical research trials is coming under increasing scrutiny.
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The Lives of Pandas
On a tight energy budget, newborns no bigger than chipmunks grow into roly-poly superstars.
- Anthropology
Rumble in the Jungle
A new book raises troubling and controversial issues regarding research on a famous South American Indian population.
- Earth
Pinning Down the Sun-Climate Connection
Many scientists propose that changes in the sun's magnetic field and radiation output during its 11-year sunspot cycle also affect the atmosphere, changing Earth's climate by steering weather systems and influencing the amount of cloud cover.
- Physics
Magnetic Whispers
Promising new ways to magnetically probe tissues and substances are emerging now that a small research group has proved their once-ridiculed claim of a flaw in the 50-year-old theory behind magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and similar analytic techniques.
