Issues

Simple mechanical forces may be key to understanding an essential biological process: the formation of cytoskeletal components that give structure to every cell in your body.

A robot exploring beneath the vulnerable Antarctic glacier has found new features that affect its melt rate.

Nations collaborate—and compete—to access million-plus-year-old ice in Antarctica.

The National Nuclear Security Administration has delayed by several years the date by which it will comply with a congressional mandate to build 80 pits per year.

The flow and transport of solute molecules in the intricate structure of the placenta make the organ a fetal life-support system.

Miniature flares recently discovered by probes that have approached the Sun’s surface are helping physicists understand how the Sun’s corona reaches temperatures of millions of kelvin.

In addition to recruiting more well-known rocket scientists, the US government brought from Europe thousands of other scientists who helped to advance numerous research fields during the Cold War.

The Copenhagen Network: The Birth of Quantum Mechanics from a Postdoctoral Perspective, Alexei Kojevnikov, Springer, 2020, $69.99 (paper)

The End of Astronauts: Why Robots Are the Future of Exploration, Donald Goldsmith and Martin Rees, Harvard U. Press, 2022, $25.95

Novel geometries can be created using microwaves to couple the internal states of atoms or molecules and mimic movement in real space.