Issues

Traditionally found in particle-physics and cosmology contexts, the relativistic Dirac equation also describes how electrons move in a unique two-dimensional condensed matter system, graphene.

For the first time, experimenters have seen atoms made from an electron and a positron exchange spins and perhaps form diatomic molecules.

The assembly of RNA can now be tracked with a precision finer than the distance between its bases.

Most R&D agencies barely held their own in yet another year of modest science funding. A proposed across-the-board 2% cut could push many science programs into the red.

Tight budgets and pricey instruments are spurring a trend among observatories to swap time. To work, though, cultural, technical, financial, and administrative wrinkles need to be ironed out.

A slate of “real-world” candidates swept the intelligent design majority off the Dover, Pennsylvania, school board, while in Kansas antievolutionists not only weakened science standards, but redefined science itself.

Men who worked at sea knew of the calming effects of oil on water long before Franklin began his investigations. Was their practical knowledge any different from the later scientific knowledge of the learned?

Franklin’s work on electricity and lightning earned him worldwide fame and respect—ideal assets for brokering aid from France during the American Revolution.

Light trucks cannot safely coexist with passenger cars under existing conditions. The problem becomes particularly urgent as more and more light trucks are used simply as car substitutes.