Feature
- Climate
Grape expectations
Global warming has delivered long, warm growing seasons and blockbuster vintages to the world’s great wine regions. But by mid-century, excessive heat will push premium wine-making into new territory.
- Earth
Life’s early traces
Tiny tufts, rolls and crinkles in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that cellular life got a relatively quick start on Earth.
- Earth
The long and winding Colorado
The history of the West’s iconic river is written in the dramatic landscapes it has shaped. How to interpret that chronicle has become a contentious issue among geologists.
- Math
Tomorrow’s catch
A biologist who formerly applied his mathematical talents in finance has developed new ways of predicting the ups and downs of fish populations.
- Microbes
Microscopic menagerie
The microbes dwelling in and on multicellular organisms should be viewed as evolutionarily inseparable from their hosts, some biologists argue.
- Humans
Mother lode
Certain sugar molecules in human breast milk do more to foster beneficial microbes, and banish harmful ones, than they do to nourish newborns.
- Microbes
The vast virome
When it comes to the microbiome, bacteria get all the press. But virologists are starting to realize that their subjects also do a lot more than make people sick.
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- Life
Year in Review: Gift of steroids keeps on giving
Mouse muscles stay juiced long after doping ends.
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- Astronomy
Year in Review: Visitor from the Oort cloud
A visitor from the outer solar system flies past the sun.
- Math
Year in Review: Progress made toward twin prime proof
A surprising advance sparks a flurry of work on the mathematical conjecture.
