Departments

Editor's Note: Changing Minds

Science presents us with a beautiful 
paradox: uncertainty as the optimal path toward certainty.
by Corey S. Powell. Editor in Chief

How Pot, Cocaine, and Hunger Intersect in the Brain

Researchers are studying the role that the endocannabinoid system plays in cravings, and using their findings to try to control our excesses.
by Gregory Mone

20 Things You Didn't Know About... The Periodic Table

How it started, how it's like solitaire, how to fold it, and how it ends.
by Rebecca Coffey

Discover Interview: The Radical Linguist Noam Chomsky

Over 50 years ago, he began a revolution that's still playing out today.
by Marion Long and Valerie Ross

Maybe You Do Need a Hole in Your Head—to Let the Medicine In

To heal the brain, scientists are trying to poke through the shield that isolates it from the rest of the body.
by Carl Zimmer

Where Yeager Went Speeding, Aliens (Allegedly) Went Missing, and Test Pilots Went Drinking

Edwards Air Force Based has had a key role in the development of aviation and space technology.
by Leeaundra Keany


The Sperm Crisis: A Tough Nut to Crack

Bad food, bad genes, and monogamy are sucking the life out of human sperm. But conceptive gels and stem cells could bring some virility back.
by David H. Freedman; illustration by David Pluckert

Are There Mysterious Forces Lurking in Our Atoms and Galaxies?

Physicists stalk a delicate “fifth force” of nature, hidden within the interstices of the other four. What they have not found is even more amazing.
by Sean Carroll

Vital Signs: Life-or-Death Drive

A boy is rushed to the ER after falling and 
rupturing his kidney. With no pediatric surgeon 
on staff, his doctor faces a difficult decision.
by Tony Dajer

Hot Science: The Best New Science Culture

Modern techno-art, the last uncontacted tribes, and our ubiquitous self-delusion
by Gilliian Conahan, Valerie Ross, Veronique Greenwald, Katie Palmer, Eric Powell

Saints + Sinners: Rupert Murdoch, Science Hero