Right Now

Man splashing water on his face at outdoor fountain beside woman holding cup near stone building.

Why Heat Waves Make You Miserable

Scientists are studying how much heat and humidity the human body can take.

by Erin O’Donnell

Proof Positive

Richard L. Taylor’s work connects two discrete domains of mathematics: curved spaces, from geometry, and modular arithmetic, which has to do with counting...

by Elizabeth Gudrais

This unorthodox de-mining team avoids most of the traditional pitfalls. Metal detectors give too many false alarms, fooled by bullets or other debris. Hand-held ground-penetrating radar machines are too expensive. Dogs weigh enough to trigger mines, injuring or killing themselves and their handlers.

Man, Mongoose, and Machine

Standing outside a Sri Lankan army base in the spring of 2007, Thrishantha Nanayakkara mapped an entire minefield without once setting foot in it.

by Paul Gleason

Daniel Carpenter

Prescription for Error?

In recent years, safety recalls of widely prescribed drugs like the pain-killer Vioxx have sent an unsettling message to consumers.

Raiders Rehabilitated

Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner and coauthors offer a revisionist view of corporate raiders and their Gordon Gekko image after reviewing 5,000 buyouts...

by Josh Lerner

One form of the Rocky Mountain monkey flower has a long trumpet suited to pollination by hummingbirds; the other is pollinated by bumblebees. Their hybrid offspring don’t do well in the wild, however, because they are not easily fertilized by the birds or the bees.

What Stress Reveals

Biologist Susan Lindquist investigates how HSP90 (heat-shock protein 90), a protein chaperone, provides a molecular mechanism that may help explain punctuated equilibrium in evolution...

by Jonathan Shaw

Tools of Stasi spying: jars containing dust cloths used to capture the body scent of people the Stasi was trying to track; a deer statuette with a camera hidden inside; a Swiss-made Tessina 35-mm miniature camera.

The Seductions of Snooping

Historian of science Kristie Macrakis's book on spying techniques used by communist East Germany's secret police.

by Elizabeth Gudrais

Treasure in the Genome’s Trash

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard often grabs headlines for its discoveries about the genetics underlying such diseases as cancer, heart...

by Courtney Humphries

The high central mound of Tell Brak, formed by generations of mud structures built on top of one another, rises out of the alluvial plain.

The ancient Mesopotamian settlement of Tell Brak

Evidence of ancient urbanism at the Mesopotamian settlement of Tell Brak....

by Paul Gleason

The younger brain, below, shows more synchronized activity than the older brain, above.

The Aging Brain

Looking at the effects of aging on healthy people's brains...

volcanic chart

Climate Change Solutions?

Electrochemcial weathering: a new CO2 mitigation strategy...

by Erin O’Donnell