Environment
Sponge Cities Can Limit Urban Floods and Droughts
Restoring natural water flows in cities can lessen the impacts of floods and droughts
Features
Energy
Artificial Leaf Turns Carbon Dioxide Into Liquid Fuel
Technology that mimics photosynthesis converts carbon dioxide to fuels in a sustainable way
Biology
How Plant Diseases Travel around the Globe on Highways in the Air
Aerial drones and chaos theory help researchers explore the many ways that microorganisms spread havoc around the world
Public Health
Off-Grid Devices Draw Drinking Water from Dry Air
Technologies that pull moisture from the air are now solar-powered
Natural Disasters
Early Warnings of Terrible Earthquakes Appear High in the Sky, a New Theory Says
The best early warnings of a big disaster may appear 180 miles above the ground, a controversial new theory says
Space & Physics
Alien Anthropocene: How Would Other Worlds Battle Climate Change?
The problem would likely plague every technological civilization throughout the universe, says astrophysicist Adam Frank
Environment
Threatened Forests Cannot Move, So Scientists Are Relocating Their Genes
Trees can't walk to a better place as climate worsens. So scientists are relocating helpful genes instead
Environment
Scientists Are Taking Extreme Steps to Help Corals Survive
Scientists are urgently transplanting, fertilizing and enhancing corals to help them adapt to warmer oceans, but rebuilding entire reefs will be daunting
Technology
Lab-Grown Meat
Beef for dinner—without killing animals or the environment
Environment
Could Genetic Engineering Save the Galápagos?
In the Galápagos, invasive species are driving native animals to extinction. Some conservationists are asking whether genetic manipulation is the solution
Environment
Can We Really Eat Invasive Species into Submission?
The tale of a giant Amazon fish reveals the promise and peril of “invasivorism”
Medicine
Microbes with Rewired DNA Turn into Patient-Saving Drugs
By reprogramming DNA inside harmful microbes, biologists are turning them into patient-saving drugs
Biology
Bacteria Gang Together in Killer Biofilms, but Scientists Can Disrupt Gang Communications
Biofilms—3-D mats of bacteria—kill as many people as cancer does and fight off antibiotics. Now scientists are turning biofilms’ own weapons against them
Biotech
Unnatural Responsibilities
Synthetic biology offers unusual rewards and risks
Biotech
Electroceuticals
Nerve-stimulating therapies could soon replace drugs for many chronic conditions
Biotech
The Future of Sexual Reproduction
Could scientists one day use blood and skin cells to replace sperm and eggs?
Medicine
Sewage Shows the Way to a Novel Diabetes Vaccine
Viruses found in contaminated water may protect against type 1 diabetes
Neuroscience
Building a Brain in the Lab
Scientists copy nature’s most complex organ in the hope of solving the mysteries of brain disorders, from autism to Alzheimer’s
Biotech
Gene Therapy Tackles a Common Birth Defect: Deafness
After false starts, researchers are making progress toward treating deafness with gene therapy
Cognition
You Really Can Learn in Your Sleep
Experimental techniques demonstrate how to strengthen memories when our brains are off-line
Neuroscience
Neuroscientists Use Rabies to Explore the Brain
Using engineered forms of the rabies virus, neuroscientists can map brain circuits with unprecedented precision
Departments
- From the Editor
Call of the Wild
- Advances
Bacterial "Tape Recorder" Could Keep Tabs on Bodily Functions
Google Searches Could Predict Heroin Overdoses
