March 31, 2018View Digital Issue
Features
Feature
Powerful opioids affect many parts of the body, but the drugs’ most deadly effects are on breathing.
Feature
A mass oral vaccination program in Ethiopian wolves could pave the way for other endangered species and help humans, too.
Call to Action
Editor's Note
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute enthuses about learning how ancient plans may have helped make Earth muddy.
Features
A mass oral vaccination program in Ethiopian wolves could pave the way for other endangered species and help humans, too.
Powerful opioids affect many parts of the body, but the drugs’ most deadly effects are on breathing.
News
One photon can transmit information in two directions at once.
The ancestor of today’s domesticated horses remains a mystery after a new analysis of ancient horse DNA.
Google’s 72-qubit quantum chip may eventually perform a task beyond the ability of traditional computers.
Not just by-products of busy nerve cells, brain waves may be key to how the brain operates.
An analysis of more than 4.5 million tweets discussing false and true stories reveals that in the Twittersphere, fake news gets more views.
Scientists find materials that conduct electricity without resistance in two meteorites.
When graphene layers are twisted to a “magic angle,” the material superconducts.
Short, REM-heavy sleep bouts separate humans from other primates, scientists find. Sleeping on the ground may have a lot to do with it.
Polar cyclones, surprisingly deep atmosphere and a fluid mass spinning as a rigid body are among the latest discoveries at Jupiter.
New research suggests early land plants called bryophytes, which include modern mosses, helped shape Earth’s surface by creating clay-rich river deposits.
On their latest master list of arthropods, U.S. entomologists have finally declared termites to be a kind of cockroach.
Strains of a bacteria that live on human skin make a compound that suppressed tumor growth in mice.
The first stars lit the cosmos by 180 million years after the Big Bang, radio observations suggest.
Microbial life in Chile’s Atacama Desert bursts into bloom when moisture is available.
Mice infected with influenza had memory problems a month later, a result that hints at a link between infections and brain performance.
Regulations that have reduced nitrogen runoff into the Chesapeake Bay are driving the recovery of underwater vegetation.
Artificial intelligence could help diagnose blinding eye diseases and other illnesses, speeding up medical care in areas where specialists might be scarce.
Notebook
Weird loner clumps of gas that have wandered for 1 billion years may have been stripped from a trio of larger galaxies.
These elegant eggs hint that a tardigrade found in a Japanese parking lot is a new species.
Pack hunting among goatfish is really about self-interest.
Hundreds of Red Sea species used the Suez Canal to migrate to the Mediterranean Sea, leading to the decline of some native species.
Structurally complex coral reefs can defend coasts against waves, even as sea levels rise.
Reviews & Previews
In The Big Ones, seismologist Lucy Jones examines the science behind some of the most catastrophic natural disasters in human history.
Letters to the Editor
Readers had questions about children’s fantasy play, lasers creating 3-D images and dust storms on Mars.
Science Visualized
For decades, all viruses were thought to be small and simple. But the discovery of more and more giant viruses shows that’s not the case.