Call Them Irresistible
Superconductors, physicists say, will someday change the world. Before then it would be nice if somebody, somewhere, understood how they work.
by Tim Folger
The Processing Plant
Bugs that fall into a purple pitcher plant get drowned in acid. Their carcasses are then ground up by a microscopic disassembly line: a chain of insect larvae that thrive in the pitcher pool, cooperating to feed themselves--and the plant.
The Neanderthal Peace
For perhaps 50,000 years, two radically different types of human lived side by side in the same small land. And for all those millennia, the two apparently had nothing whatsoever to do with each other. Why in the world not?
Death and the Microbe
Most people think of bacteria as selfish individualists. But in many microbial colonies, some bugs gladly sacrifice themselves for the greater good of bugkind.
Under the Influence of Clouds
Floating overhead are mysterious arbiters of our climate. Clouds do more than just deliver rain and snow: by absorbing and reflecting light, they help control the flow of energy around the planet.