Feature
- Earth
Year in review: Ozone hole officially on the mend
Research this year confirms that the Antarctic ozone hole is healing — an international success attributed to cooperation and new technologies.
- Computing
Year in review: AlphaGo scores a win for artificial intelligence
AlphaGo’s triumph over its human opponent provides a glimpse into the future of artificial intelligence.
- Tech
Five challenges for self-driving cars
Scientific and technical experts weigh in on the biggest hurdles for autonomous vehicles, and how ongoing research will help.
- Animals
Animals give clues to the origins of human number crunching
Guppies, dogs, chickens, crows, spiders — lots of animals have number sense without knowing numbers.
- Astronomy
Star-starved galaxies fill the cosmos
Astronomers are detecting hundreds of galaxies that are almost devoid of stars. There are at least four theories on how they got that way.
- Paleontology
Dinosaurs may have used color as camouflage
Fossilized pigments could paint a vivid picture of a dinosaur’s life.
- Life
Lichens are an early warning system for forest health
Lichens, fascinating mosaics of fungi and algae or cyanobacteria, are made for sensing environmental change.
- Tech
For robots, artificial intelligence gets physical
Physical intelligence makes robots able to sense of the world around them.
- Physics
Units of measure are getting a fundamental upgrade
New units based on fundamental properties of the universe will make measurements more precise.
- Genetics
Big biological datasets map life’s networks
Expanding from genomics to multi-omics means stretching data capacity, but it may lead to a future of early diagnosis, personalized medicine and hardy crops.
- Oceans
Reef rehab could help threatened corals make a comeback
Reefs are under threat from rising ocean temperatures. Directed spawning, microfragmenting and selective breeding may help.
- Humans
Animal hybrids may hold clues to Neandertal-human interbreeding
The physical effects of interbreeding among animals may offer clues to Neandertals’ genetic mark on humans.
