Feature
- Science & Society
Heal thy neighbor
As antidepressants and other drugs gradually replace psychotherapy in the United States, new forms of the talking cure are growing in popularity in developing countries ravaged by civil war and poverty.
- Neuroscience
Global neuro lab
With more than 50 million users, the brain-training website Lumosity is giving scientists access to an enormous collection of cognitive performance data. Mining the dataset could be the first step toward a new kind of neuroscience.
- Science & Society
Science slowdown
The recent federal government shutdown, which furloughed more than 800,000 government workers and may have cost the nation as much as $24 billion, has sent ripples through the nation’s scientific research enterprise.
- Neuroscience
The Inconstant Gardener
Microglia, the same immune cells that help sculpt the developing brain, may do damage later in life .
- Health & Medicine
Old drug, new tricks
Metformin, cheap and widely used for diabetes, takes a swipe at cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Waiting to exhale
Scientists sift through the chemical potpourri that escapes our lungs for new ways to diagnose disease.
- Neuroscience
Mind to motion
Brain-computer interfaces promise new freedom for the paralyzed and immobile.
- Astronomy
Quiet maximum
By almost any measure, this solar maximum has been pathetic. No more than 67 sunspots have appeared in a month so far; at the last peak, in 2000, that number was above 120.
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- Astronomy
Voyager’s view
Though the 1970s-era space probe has finally slipped into an interstellar realm, in some senses it is still very much within the bounds of the solar system.
- Tech
Memory upgrade
The demands of modern computing call for a seismic shift in data storage and retrieval.
- Earth
Deep network
The NEPTUNE observatory — a ring of six underwater research stations connected to the Internet with fiber optic cables — is the first online observatory to brave the depths of the abyss.
