Feature

  1. Head Agony

    Jumpy cells may underlie migraine’s sensory storm.

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  2. Climate

    Soil’s Hidden Secrets

    Shocking discoveries from the underground may shake up climate science.

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  3. Chemistry

    In a Squeeze

    Elements under pressure reveal secrets of extreme chemistry.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Brainy Ballplayers

    Elite athletes get their heads in the game.

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  5. Tech

    Software Scientist

    With a little data, Eureqa generates fundamental laws of nature.

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  6. Science & Society

    2011 Science News of the Year: Science & Society

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  7. 2011 Science News of the Year: Atom & Cosmos

    Not so fast, neutrinos News of particles zipping along faster than light (SN: 10/22/11, p. 18) was met with universal skepticism — including from the physicists in Italy who reported the results. But the Gran Sasso National Laboratory’s OPERA team hasn’t found any source of error that could explain how the neutrinos appeared to shave […]

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  8. 2011 Science News of the Year: Nutrition

    Howard Oates/Istockphoto The value of vitamin D The simmering debate over vitamin D came to a boil as the scientific organization representing hormone experts embraced daily recommendations for the vitamin that far exceed those put forward in late 2010 by a U.S. Institute of Medicine panel. The Endocrine Society asserted in July that people need […]

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  9. 2011 Science News of the Year: Molecules

    Molecular muscle does the job Chemists often wish they could reach into a test tube and physically force a chemical reaction — and now they’ve come pretty darn close. In a feat of molecular arm-twisting, researchers attached polymer chains to an extremely stable ring-shaped molecule and tore it in two (SN Online: 9/15/11). The new […]

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  10. 2011 Science News of the Year: Environment

    Courtesy of Christopher Arp/USGS Arctic warming signs Climatologists pointing to the Arctic as the leading baro­meter of global change have plenty of new evidence that wholesale warming is under way. Observational data indicate that the region’s air, soils and water have warmed substantially since 2006, suggesting that the climate has established a “new normal” (SN […]

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  11. 2011 Science News of the Year: Genes & Cells

    Nicolle Rager Fuller Boons and busts via gut microbes Studying the secret lives of bacteria living in human intestines has yielded some unexpected finds. One study suggests that most humans have one of three different combinations of friendly microbes (SN: 5/21/11, p. 14), and another reveals that people’s mix of microbes depends heavily on diet. […]

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  12. 2011 Science News of the Year: Matter & Energy

    Baile Zhang and G. Barbastathis/SMART Centre Quantum theory gets physical Reality can be understood not only in terms of the flow of energy, but also in terms of the flow of information. So says a team of physicists with a new take on quantum theory (SN: 8/13/11, p. 12). This theory, which explains how matter […]

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