October 29, 2016
Features
Feature
Expanding from genomics to multi-omics means stretching data capacity, but it may lead to a future of early diagnosis, personalized medicine and hardy crops.
Feature
Reefs are under threat from rising ocean temperatures. Directed spawning, microfragmenting and selective breeding may help.
Call to Action
Editor's Note
Editor in chief Eva Emerson discusses Nobel-winning science and what the future may hold.
Features
Reefs are under threat from rising ocean temperatures. Directed spawning, microfragmenting and selective breeding may help.
Expanding from genomics to multi-omics means stretching data capacity, but it may lead to a future of early diagnosis, personalized medicine and hardy crops.
News
A simulation of the infant Earth provides a new view of how the iron-loving precious metals ended up buried deep in the planet’s core.
Scarce oxygen and abundant sulfate prevented methane from accumulating enough to keep Earth warm hundreds of millions of years ago, reviving the faint young sun paradox.
The solar system appears to live in one of the major spiral arms of the Milky Way, not in an offshoot as previously thought.
Nanochemists win Nobel prize for devising molecular machines
The three scientists who won the 2016 Nobel Prize in physics predicted new materials using mathematics illustrated by bagels and pretzels.
Particles known as baryons show their first hints of antimatter-matter discrepancies.
The 2016 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi for his work on autophagy, a process that cells use to break down old parts for future use.
Tantalum-180m has a half-life more than a million times the age of the universe.
The Rosetta mission comes to an end as spacecraft touches down on surface of comet 67P/ Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Shock waves in the early universe could explain the generation of magnetic fields and the predominance of matter over antimatter.
Genes from Wolbachia bacteria infiltrated pill bugs and now make genetic males female.
Glassy debris and the burnt remains of wildfires suggest that a large space rock hit Earth near the start of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum warming event around 56 million years ago.
Infection with Zika virus in utero can trigger a spectrum of birth defects beyond microcephaly, and could potentially cause long-term health problems as well.
Armor-plated, 809-million-year-old fossilized microbes discovered in Canada are the oldest known evidence of shell making.
The much-debated proposal that a Culex mosquito could help spread Zika gets some international support.
A population of small cliffs on Mercury suggests that the planet might have been tectonically active in the last 50 million years.
New report suggests an ancient Maya text — the bark-paper Grolier Codex — could be the oldest known document in Americas.
Gene editing of viable human embryos is happening, in and out of the public eye.
As Arctic sea ice declines, Peary caribou or plants risk getting stranded when their frozen highways thaw.
When bumblebees eat a sugary snack, they make more optimistic decisions, a new study finds. This could be early evidence for emotion in insects.
DNA variants were linked to beagles’ tendency to seek human help.
Notebook
A lightning flash stretching 321 kilometers across and one that lasted 7.74 seconds have been named the most extreme events on record, thanks to a new rule change.
Wet food can slurp bacteria off the floor in less than a second.
Melatonin lets people sleep but starts male midshipman fish melodiously humming their hearts out.
Scientists have been searching for a vaccine against a deadly microbe for 50 years.
New technique allows scientists to read the pages of an ancient text without opening the book.
Reviews & Previews
With “Voyage of Time,” director Terrence Malick brings the history of the universe — and the evolution of life on Earth — to the big screen.
Journalist Mary Ellen Hannibal’s “Citizen Scientist” tells tales of ordinary people contributing to science.
Letters to the Editor
Alcoholism-linked genes, making better corneas and more in reader feedback.
Science Visualized
Maps of genetic diversity within mammal and amphibian species provide a baseline for understanding the effects of human activity and climate change on animals.