EvolutionMarch 1, 2016
Controversy and Excitement Swirl around New Human Species
An astonishing trove of fossils has scientists, and the media, in a tizzy over our origins
Volume 314, Issue 3
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Features
Space & PhysicsMarch 1, 2016
Dark Energy: No Answers but More Questions
Why is the expansion of the universe accelerating? After two decades of study, the answer is as mysterious as ever, but the questions have become clearer
NeuroscienceMarch 1, 2016
The Brain's Waste-Disposal System May Be Enlisted to Treat Alzheimer's and Other Brain Illnesses
An internal plumbing system rids the brain of toxic wastes. Sleep is when this cleanup ritual occurs
Climate ChangeDecember 17, 2015
The Ominous Story of Syria's Climate Refugees
Farmers who have escaped the battle-torn nation explain how drought and government abuse have driven social violence
BiologyMarch 1, 2016
New Gene-Editing Techniques Could Transform Food Crops--or Die on the Vine
A powerful new gene-editing tool is sweeping agriculture. It could transform the debate over genetic modification
EvolutionMarch 1, 2016
Clusters of Epic Volcanic Explosions Drove Earth's Mass Extinctions
Huge regions with epic volcanic explosions are now blamed for four of Earth's “big 5” mass extinctions
BiologyMarch 1, 2016
How Cells Know Which Way Is Up, Down, Front and Back, Close or Far
From insects to mammals, a small set of genes and proteins controls the orientation of the body’s cells and tissues
Departments
Advances
Cheap Oil Is Undermining the Success of Nearly Every Climate Cleanup Plan
The European Space Agency Launches a Hugely Ambitious Mission to Mars This Month
Pacemakers That Temporarily Disrupt the Heart's Rhythm May Boost Its Health
5 Years Later, the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Site Continues to Spill Waste
Bacteria Can Convey Electrical Messages the Same Way Neurons Do
For the First Time Chemists Measure the Energy of a Chemical Reaction's Transition State
In Case You Missed It: Astronaut Scott Kelly Returns to Earth This Month, China Employs an AI Weather Anchor--and More!
Scores of Museum Specimens Carry a Name That Isn't Theirs
Scientists Breed Pigs Resistant to a Devastating Infection Using CRISPR
From the Editor
Looking to the Rising Star
Letters
Readers Respond to "Master Builders"
The Science Agenda
Give States Access to Medical Data
Forum
Curb Antibiotic Use in Farm Animals
The Science of Health
Better Parenting Skills May Break the Poverty–Disease Connection
TechnoFiles
Meet the World's First Truly Universal Cable
Reviews
Book Review: Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
Book Review: Blood and Earth
Book Review: Pollination Power
Book Review: Pandemic
Skeptic
Is Social Science Politically Biased?
Anti Gravity
Mustache Analysis Reveals Men Still Much More Likely Than Women to Be Medical Bigwigs
50, 100 & 150 Years Ago
Naval Aviation Gets a Boost from a New Invention: The Catapult
Graphic Science
All 2.3 Million Species Are Mapped into a Single Circle of Life
Web Exclusives