Animals
Delve into the history of the fight for Earth’s endangered creatures
The new book ‘Beloved Beasts’ chronicles past conservation efforts as a movement and a science, and explores how to keep striding forward.
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Cover Story
DNA databases are too white, so genetics doesn’t help everyone. How do we fix that?
A lack of diversity in genetic databases is making precision medicine ineffective for many people. One historian proposes a solution: construct reference genomes for individual populations.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Earth
Color-coded radar maps reveal a patchwork of California wildfire destruction
A composite made up of fine-scale vegetation maps from different years lets researchers track the story of plant loss and regrowth around Los Angeles.
Notebook
Animals
A new chameleon species may be the world’s tiniest reptile
The newly described critters, found in the northern forests of Madagascar, may be threatened by deforestation.
Features
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Three visions of the future, inspired by neuroscience’s past and present
Three fantastical tales of where neuroscience might take us are based on the progress made by brain researchers in the last 100 years.
More Stories from the March 13, 2021 issue
- Health & Medicine
Making masks fit better can reduce coronavirus exposure by 96 percent
Double masking, rubber bands and other hacks can produce a tighter fit and prevent aerosol particles that can carry coronavirus from getting through.
- Astronomy
The number of Milky Way nova explosions per year has been pinned down
Knowing how frequently these stellar eruptions occur will help determine their contribution to the galaxy’s chemical makeup.
- Plants
Modified genes can distort wild cotton’s interactions with insects
In a Yucatan nature park, engineered genes influence nectar production, affecting ants’ and maybe pollinators’ attraction to the wild cotton plants.
- Quantum Physics
‘Designer molecules’ could create tailor-made quantum devices
Scientists are making molecules suited to a variety of quantum tasks by building them up, atom by atom.
- Life
Meatier meals and more playtime might reduce cats’ toll on wildlife
Outdoor cats kill billions of birds and mammals each year. Simply satisfying their need to hunt or supplementing their diets could lessen that impact.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, researchers treated chronic pain with electricity
In 1971, doctors eased chronic pain by sending electrical impulses to the spinal cord. Fifty years later, improved techniques help paralyzed people walk.
- Astronomy
Signs of a hidden Planet Nine in the solar system may not hold up
Hints of a remote planet relied on clumped up orbits of bodies beyond Neptune. A new study suggests that clumping is an illusion.
- Health & Medicine
Nearly half a million U.S. children missed out on lead tests in early 2020
A big drop in routine lead tests, which can identify children with elevated blood levels, is another troubling sign of the pandemic’s toll.
- Physics
Tiny, sunlight-powered aircraft could soar beyond airplanes’ reach
Microfliers levitate when hit with light, in conditions like those high in Earth’s atmosphere.
- Archaeology
Stonehenge may have had roots in a Welsh stone circle
Ancient migrants to southern England brought the makings of the iconic monument with them, researchers suspect.
- Astronomy
The first black hole ever discovered is more massive than previously thought
New observations of Cygnus X-1 are leading astronomers to rethink what they know about stars that turn into black holes.
- Life
A reeking, parasitic plant lost its body and much of its genetic blueprint
The Sapria himalayana flower's extreme parasitic lifestyle inside the body of its host has left a bizarre imprint on its genome.
