More Stories from the June 7, 2008 issue
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Lost and found
Former child soldiers in Africa often adjust well to community life if they receive group rehabilitation and community acceptance, studies indicate
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Space
A special place
Two proposed studies might determine whether dark energy is real or humans live in a special place in the cosmos
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Life
It’s the network, stupid
The complexity of humans may lie not in genes but in the web of interactions among the proteins they make.
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Health & Medicine
Drugs: Still bad for you
Heavy cannabis smokers have increased blood levels of a protein linked to heart disease.
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Health & Medicine
Sharing valuable real estate
Human brains rewire when people lose a sense, but a new study of people who have regained vision shows that the rewired areas retain their old abilities.
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Life
Identifying viable embryos
New genetic tests to distinguish viable from nonviable embryos may help eliminate risky multiple births from fertility procedures.
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Earth
Climate clues in ice
A kilometers-long ice core from Antarctica has been recording climate information for the past 800,000 years and has revealed a three millennia–long period when carbon dioxide levels in the air were lower than any previously measured.
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Space
A shifty moon
Astronomers have found evidence that the icy shell of Jupiter's large moon Europa has rotated nearly a quarter-turn, which supports the notion that the moon has a subterranean ocean.
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Chemistry
Phlegmatic molecules
Time-lapse snapshots of molecules show that they change shapes less often than theory predicted.
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Humans
ISEF winners announced
More than 1,500 young scientists flexed their mental muscles this week at the world's largest high-school science competition.
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Life
Reviving extinct DNA
For the first time, scientists have resurrected a piece of DNA from an extinct animal — the Tasmanian tiger. The researchers engineered mice with a piece of the long-gone marsupial's DNA that turns on a collagen gene in cartilage-producing cells.
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Animals
How they shine
Believe it or not, science has barely begun to fathom the peacock’s tail. Subtle as a pink tuxedo, one might think. Big flashy thing. Peahens love it. What’s not to understand. INSPECTING IRRIDESCENCE Seen under a scanning electron microscope (right), the bristles of the wings of the butterfly Tomares ballus (left) resemble photonic crystals, materials […]
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Health & Medicine
Insects (the original white meat)
Dining on insects, usually more by choice than necessity, occurs in at least 100 countries — and may be better than chicken for both people and the environment.
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Earth
Audubon’s insect cafeteria
Read the main feature story on insects here. Would you fancy grasshopper gumbo? Perhaps mushroom hors d’oeuvres topped with a batter-dipped and lightly fried dragonfly—in season, of course—drizzled with a sauce of Dijon mustard, soy and butter? These are among recipes that self-taught insect chef Zack Lemann has whipped up as possible menu items for […]
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Astronomy
When Worlds Collide
Science fiction movies and books are full of parallel universes. CRASH COURSE Microwave radiation traveling across the universe appears mostly uniform — as shown in the larger sphere — except for tiny temperature variations (red and blue) that indicate the locations of the seeds of future galaxies and other structures. Some cosmologists now say that […]