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Science

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Rivaling Nature

The war in Iraq has increased demand for limb and facial plastic surgeons

"No one ever found any dead vultures," says McGrath. "There were simply less and less of them."

Fantastically Repulsive

In this interview, Susan McGrath, author of “The Vanishing,” describes getting up close and personal with vultures

In the past decade or so, over 95 percent of India's vultures have died.

Soaring Hopes

The first two Asian vultures breed in captivity

The African American DNA Roots Project is a molecular anthropology study designed to match African American lineages with those in West Africa, a region from which many slaves were taken.

Family Ties

African Americans use scientific advances to trace their roots

A researcher tests a polygraph machine.

Detecting Lies

From chewing rice to scanning brains, the perfect lie detector remains elusive

Ancient meditation might have strengthened the mind's ability to connect symbols and meanings, eventually causing gene mutations that favored modern memory.

Meditate on It

Could ancient campfire rituals have separated us from Neanderthals?

An image of Augustine erupting on January 13, 2006, from about 50 miles away from the volcano.

Volcanic Lightning

As sparks flew during the eruption of Mount St. Augustine in Alaska, scientists made some new discoveries

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How Many Politicians Does It Take to Change a Lightbulb?

Black and white-furred gray wolves

In Danger of Endangerment

Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico with its 300 m (980 ft) dish, one of the world's largest filled-aperture (i.e. full dish) radio telescope, conducts some SETI searches.

Earth to Space

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Top 10 Polluted Cities

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Science’s 300-Year-Old Grand Unification Theory

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Warm Temperatures Get Zoo Animals Steamy

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Welcome to thegist

Small but cherished, the Grand Teton herd faces a growing number of man-made obstacles—including more than 100 fences (this one near Pinedale, WY) thrown up along the migration route that it has followed for millennia.

End of the Road?

Development threatens to block the migration of pronghorn antelopes. Without new protections, conservationists say, the animals are running out of time

Though sundials have been around 3,000 years, William Andrewes (indicating the lateness of the hour in his garden in Concord, Massachusetts) is perhaps the first to build one showing the time in multiple places simultaneously.

The Shadow Knows

Why a leading expert on the history of timekeeping set out to create a sundial unlike anything the world has ever seen

Beyond Time

A unique sundial marks places as well as hours

Lake Champlain's Isle La Motte is rich in marine fossils, some of which are 450 million years old.

Paleozoic Vermont

What’s the world’s oldest communal ocean reef doing in the Green Mountain State?

The South American monkey frog and some other tree frogs can endure sunlight and dry air for long periods.

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Tree frogs, conservation maps and the northern swordtail fish

The new removable inks are made from safe pigments and trapped in nano-sized, harmless polymer shells.

The Tattoo Eraser

A new type of body art ink promises freedom from forever

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