December | DISCOVER Magazine

Science News

The Second Coming of Biofuels

Plant-based fuels have been a big disappointment to date, but new "green biofuels" might fulfill their promise. 09.02.2008

The Race to Save the Hubble Telescope

An inside look at what may be the toughest space mission ever attempted. 08.28.2008

Oldsters' New Fountain of Youth: Video Games

Some specially tailored games seem to help preserve mental fitness. 08.27.2008

Smell Your Way to Happiness

An ancient type of incense seems to act like an antidepressant drug when injected. 08.26.2008

Is the Universe's Energy Smothered in Dust?

A good dusting of 10,000 galaxies reveals tons of hidden energy. 08.23.2008

Next-Generation Semiconductor Was First Created Elsewhere in the Cosmos

A rare and promising mineral was plucked from space by a NASA satellite. 08.21.2008

How Much Can You Learn From a Home DNA Test?

One reporter has her DNA analyzed and finds that genetic testing isn't an exact science. 08.20.2008

The History of Humans, Written in One Person's DNA

One reporter's genetic test hints at how people colonized the entire world. 08.20.2008

December 2006

Scientist of the Year: Jay Keasling

Which scientist had the greatest impact in the past year?

by Carl Zimmer

Can Coal Come Clean?

How to survive the return of the world's dirtiest fossil fuel.

25 Greatest Science Books of All Time

DISCOVER presents the essential reading list for anyone interested in science.

Nobel Notations

While this year's winners gather in Stockholm, some earlier Nobel laureates decode their breakthroughs with crayon and cardboard.

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Million Dollar Math

If you can solve the world's most daunting mathematical challenges, fame awaits. Fortune, too, if you want it

Scientist of the Year: Runners-Up

John Donoghue is developing implants that connect the brain to a prosthetic limb, and Svante Pääbo is mapping the DNA of the Neanderthal.

The God Experiments

Five researchers take science where it's never gone before.

Data

Are We All Synesthetes?

Move Over, T. Rex

How Good Genes Go Bad

World's Biggest Binoculars

When All Whales Were Killers

Good News For Light Sleepers

Pyramid Building Saps the Soul

Mother's Littlest Helper

What Ever Happened to Crack Babies?

One Giant Step for a Small, Crowded Country

Global Warming Sinks

Why Fathers Know Best

Earth's Big Balancing Act

Rethinking the Conscious Mind

Departments

Birth reveals the transitional nature of the design.
by Jaron Lanier

Two certain defeats can be better than one.
by Alex Stone

Jack Black the royal rat catcher, Jacko the world-champion rat killer, rats who mate more than once a minute, and more
by Liza Lentini and David Mouzon

Glimpses of nature in a New York photography show; Lego's robot kit; order a tank on Amazon.com.

The same protein that prevents cancer may also encourage aging.
by Jessica Ruvinsky

National mirth rates are uncovered.
by Jennifer Barone

Dramatic photos show how the tsunami devastated Sri Lanka's landscape, but ecologists predict it will recover.
by Mary C. Pearl

If terrorism is cultivated by modern media, how do we fight it?
by Douglas Rushkoff

Readers duke it out over the fate of science and react to DISCOVER's interview with Newt Gingrich

How birding in Central Park in an age of terror makes the man
by Bruno Maddox

Skin eruptions mystify both doctor and patient.
by Claire Panosian Dunavan