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Magazine
In the Oct. 13 SN: 2018’s scientists to watch, superconductors heat up, the world’s oldest drawing, a sneaky superbug slayer, Ceres’ ice volcanoes, the birth of a neutron star, kidney stones close-up and more.
September 30, 2017View Digital Issue
Editor's Note
Acting Editor in Chief Elizabeth Quill discusses how nature can inspire people to make long-lasting change.
Magazine issue: Vol.
192 No. 5
,
September 30, 2017
, p. 2
Features
Feature
The way bats navigate their environs inspires engineers to develop better sonar and robots that can estimate crop yield or deliver packages
Feature
New lab technologies that let bats fly freely allow scientists to track nerve cell signals as the animals dodge and weave.
Feature
Air pollution levels have come down since the 1970s, but smog is being linked with a growing list of diseases, including dementia, obesity, diabetes and even Parkinson’s.
Call to Action
Editor's Note
Acting Editor in Chief Elizabeth Quill discusses how nature can inspire people to make long-lasting change.
Features
Air pollution levels have come down since the 1970s, but smog is being linked with a growing list of diseases, including dementia, obesity, diabetes and even Parkinson’s.
The way bats navigate their environs inspires engineers to develop better sonar and robots that can estimate crop yield or deliver packages
New lab technologies that let bats fly freely allow scientists to track nerve cell signals as the animals dodge and weave.
News
Astronomers have hunted down a star seen exploding in the year 1437 and traced it since, offering clues to the stages of a white dwarf.
Researchers are turning to nature to create adhesives that work in the wet environment of the human body.
The sun tends to release its biggest flares at the ends of solar cycles — and we might finally be able to test why.
Immune system resists fungal infection by directing spores to their death.
A dangerous form of the chemical messenger dopamine causes cellular mayhem in the very nerve cells that make it.
Ribs attached to neck bones could have signaled trouble for woolly rhinos, a new study suggests.
Vibrations of a tiny cantilever could help reveal why quantum rules fail on large scales.
The Zika virus targets cells that cause glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, studies in human cells and mice show.
Neandertals could have made tar with simple methods and materials on hand, new experiments show.
New looks at older data on the weirdly flickering Tabby’s star muddy possible explanations — but it’s still probably not aliens.
Microbes may tamper with the production of tiny molecules in brain regions that help control anxiety.
Fossils reveal that as horses evolved to have fewer toes, they also got stronger and faster.
A set of nine genes predicted an effective response to the flu vaccine in young people, no matter the strains.
Smooth, vertical surfaces may be blind spots for bats and cause some animals to face-plant, study suggests.
Scientists continue the search for particles that make up the universe’s missing matter.
Photon information processing on nanoscale could enable future communication networks.
Notebook
Wild beer studies are teaching scientists and brewers about the tropical fruit smell and sour taste of success.
Analysis of specimens from China implies ray-finned fishes evolved later than previously thought.
50 years ago, the effects of chronic marijuana smoking on mental health were hazy. They still are.
By studying variations in the rings of Uranus, researchers have determined the mass and density of the planet’s moon Cressida.
Reviews & Previews
A new book takes a hard look at the chicken industry for its role in fostering antibiotic resistance.
Letters to the Editor
Readers have questions about miniature spacecraft project and Canaanite genealogy.
Science Visualized
Flower reproduction depends on the pollen that collects in hard-to-reach spots on bees, a new study shows.