Archives
More Stories from the November 19, 2011 issue
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EarthPole flips tied to plate tectonics
A lopsided arrangement of continents could lead to reversals in Earth's magnetic field.
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Health & Medicine
Nose divides sweet from foul
The way scent-detection machinery is laid out suggests that people are born with some innate olfactory preferences.
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Chemistry
Miracle fruit secret revealed
Bizarre berry works by sensitizing the tongue's sweet sensors to acidic flavors.
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Life
Food makes male flies frisky
Courtship behavior in a classic lab insect is driven by the aroma of dinner.
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Health & Medicine
The mind’s eye revealed
A new technology uses brain scans to see what a person is watching.
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Space
Messenger from Mercury
NASA orbiter returns images of odd landforms on the solar system's innermost planet.
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Space
Longer cosmic ruler based on black holes
A new method promises to improve the precision of extreme astronomical distance measurements.
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Earth
Arctic ozone loss in 2011 unprecedented
Report describes a ‘hole’ comparable to conditions observed over Antarctica during the mid-1980s.
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Humans
Inca takeovers not usually hostile
Skeletal evidence suggests that war was not the answer for Inca imperialists.
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Humans
Stone Age paint shop unearthed
The discovery of tools for making a substance possibly used in body decoration suggests humans could invent and plan by 100,000 years ago.
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Humans
Plague bug not so fierce after all
DNA analysis shows bacterium was fairly ordinary but thrived in pestilent conditions of medieval Europe.
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Life
Take my enemy, please
The risky business of relocating endangered species might have better outcomes if conservationists shift solitary animals along with their usual territorial rivals.
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Health & Medicine
Teen brains’ growing pains
Testing captures substantial changes in some youths’ IQs and gray matter.
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Health & Medicine
Measles cases up in U.S. and Canada
Both countries report 2011 to be the worst year since the mid-1990s.
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Health & Medicine
Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association
The mystery of HIV elite controllers, a vaccine against C. difficile, blood transfusion and infection, and contaminated public surfaces.
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Psychology
Digital bounty hunters unleashed
Internet technique shows promise as fast way to mobilize huge problem-solving teams.
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Humans
Facebook value overstated, study finds
Some estimates of the social networking site's worth appear to make impossible assumptions.
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Health & Medicine
Brain gene activity changes through life
Studies track biochemical patterns from just after conception to old age.
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Cornell project brings peregrines back to the eastern United States
With a little help, peregrine falcons make a comeback from the devastating effects of DDT.
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