June 2009

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Reviews: Computing Cells, Humans as Chefs, and Time Twisting on the Dark Side of the Moon

The best science culture this month

When Life Gives You Manure, Make Clean Fuel

The simple step of drying out animal waste can help turn it into a safer, more practical energy source.
by Stephen Cass

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Movies

The first skin flicks, setting actors on fire (safely), the great bluff that turned into IMAX, and more.
by Rebecca Coffey

5 Questions: From Fossils in Rocks to Stadium Rock

Gregory Erickson studies the life cycles of dinosaurs and teaches concert-like classes.
by Andrew Grant

Think Tech: Technology Meets the Great Outdoors

New gadgets that can help you enjoy, document, and survive the wilderness

Vital Signs: Running Out of Life's Blood

A dying patient faces a dropping blood count—and a faith that forbids transfusions.
by H. Lee Kagan

Numbers: Drugs, From Development to Testing to Marketing to Drinking Water

by Jeremy Jacquot

Staring at the Sun, Just as Galileo Did

Astronomers at the Mount Wilson Observatory sketch sunspots every day, continuing a tradition started by Galileo.
by Dava Sobel

Big Picture: Life After Silicon—How Graphene Could Revolutionize Electronics

Will the next generation of computers, phones, and even energy storage be built on a form of carbon?
by Monica Heger

Visual Science: The Red Badge of Climate Change

Tracing the flow of a blood-red fluorescent dye may reveal the ultimate fate of the Greenland's ice.

Can a Single Neuron Tell Halle Berry From Grandma Esther?

A new theory says the brain stores complex pieces of information in "sparse-coding networks."
by Carl Zimmer

What Is This? A Stony, Bloody Battlefield?

Hint: It's related to the rose and can put the "white" back in your pearly whites.
by Andrew Grant