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March-April 2026

Volume: 114 Number: 2

A deep photographic exposure captures a time-lapsed view of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object and only the third large one confirmed to have passed through our Solar System from elsewhere. 3I/ATLAS has a bright dust tail (color enhanced in this image) that is typical of comets. However, the prior two interstellar objects were quite different, showing the range of small bodies in the universe. The first interstellar object detected, 1I/ʻOumuamua, did not have a dust tail but had unexpected accelerations not caused by gravity that were too strong to be from forces created by radiation. As Darryl Z. Seligman describes in “The Discovery of Dark Comets,” studying this strange interstellar object inspired him and his colleagues to take a closer look at comets in the Solar System that also seem to defy standard definition, and which might belong to an entirely new astronomical category. (Cover image by Dan Bartlett.)

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    May-June 2004

    Volume: 92 Number: 3

    • "The Imperiled Giants of the Mekong," by Zeb S. Hogan, Peter B. Moyle, Bernie May, M. Jake Vander Zanden and Ian G. Baird

    • "Optically Trapped Fermi Gases," by John E. Thomas and Michael E. Gehm

    • "The Structure of the Human Brain," by John S. Allen, Joel Bruss and Hanna Damasio

    • "Leaves, Flowers and Garbage Bags: Making Waves," by Eran Sharon, Michael Marder and Harry L. Swinney

    • "The Shadow Effect and the Case of Félix Tisserand," by William I. McLaughlin and Sylvia L. Miller

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  • March-April - 2004 - Volume: 92 - Number: 2

    March-April 2004

    Volume: 92 Number: 2

    • "Internal Tides and the Continental Slope," by David A. Cacchione and Lincoln F. Pratson

    • "Amphibian Decline and Emerging Disease," by Joseph M. Kiesecker, Lisa K. Belden, Katriona Shea and Michael J. Rubbo

    • "The Origin of Matter," by James M. Cline

    • "The Artificial Nile," by Scott W. Nixon

    • "The Adaptive Value of Religious Ritual," by Richard Sosis

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  • January-February - 2004 - Volume: 92 - Number: 1

    January-February 2004

    Volume: 92 Number: 1

    • "The Cosmic Web," by Robert A. Simcoe

    • "Human Biomonitoring of Environmental Chemicals," by Ken Sexton, Larry L. Needham and James L. Pirkle

    • "Ancient Earthquakes at Lake Lucerne," by Michael Schnellmann, Flavio S. Anselmetti, Domenico Giardini, Judith A. McKenzie and Steven N. Ward

    • "Salt Marshes Under Siege," by Mark Bertness, Brian Reed Silliman and Robert Jefferies

    • "The Evolution of Jealousy," by Christine R. Harris

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  • November-December - 2003 - Volume: 91 - Number: 6

    November-December 2003

    Volume: 91 Number: 6

    • "Aging: A Biological Perspective," by Robert Arking

    • "The Centers of Planets," by Sandro Scandolo and Raymond Jeanloz

    • "Survival of the Fittest Molecule," by Willem Stemmer and Brett Holland

    • "The Origin of Gold in South Africa," by Jason Kirk, Joaquin Ruiz, John Chesley and Spencer Titley

    • "Moving Up in the World," by Mark S. Aldenderfer

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  • September-October - 2003 - Volume: 91 - Number: 5

    September-October 2003

    Volume: 91 Number: 5

    • "Thorium Fuel for Nuclear Energy," by Mujid S. Kazimi

    • "The Importance of Context in Genetics," by H. Frederik Nijhout

    • "Discovering the Edge of the Solar System," by Chadwick A. Trujillo

    • "The Sweet Science of Glycobiology," by Ram Sasisekharan and James R. Myette

    • "The Useful Pursuit of Shadows," by Graeme L. Stephens

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  • July-August - 2003 - Volume: 91 - Number: 4

    July-August 2003

    Volume: 91 Number: 4

    • "Alzheimer's Disease," by Vernon M. Ingram

    • "Ice at the Lunar Poles," by Richard R. Vondrak and Dana H. Crider

    • "The Value of Positive Emotions," by Barbara L. Fredrickson

    • "Quantum Erasure," by Stephen P. Walborn, Marcelo O. Terra Cunha, Sebastião Pádua and Carlos H. Monken

    • "Conserving Biodiversity Coldspots," by Peter Kareiva and Michelle Marvier

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  • May-June - 2003 - Volume: 91 - Number: 3

    May-June 2003

    Volume: 91 Number: 3

    • "Prenatal Hormone Exposure and Sexual Variation," by John G. Vandenbergh

    • "The Kindness of Strangers," by Robert V. Levine

    • "Foresight in Genome Evolution," by Lynn Helena Caporale

    • "The Ancient Ceramics of West Mexico," by Robert B. Pickering, Ephraim Cuevas

    • "Science in 2006, Revisited," by Lewis M. Branscomb

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  • March-April - 2003 - Volume: 91 - Number: 2

    March-April 2003

    Volume: 91 Number: 2

    • "Influenza," by Robert G. Webster and Elizabeth Jane Walker

    • "Dating Ancient Mortar," by John Hale, Jan Heinemeier, Lynne Lancaster, Alf Lindroos and Åsa Ringbom

    • "New Antibiotics and New Resistance," by Carlos Amábile-Cuevas

    • "Ecologically Sustainable Yield," by Richard W. Zabel, Chris J. Harvey, Steven L. Katz, Thomas P. Good and Phillip S. Levin

    • "Genealogy in the Era of Genomics," by Susanna C. Manrubia, Bernard Derrida and Damián H. Zanette

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  • January-February - 2003 - Volume: 91 - Number: 1

    January-February 2003

    Volume: 91 Number: 1

    • "How the Retina Works," by Helga Kolb

    • "The Hubble Constant and the Expanding Universe," by Wendy Freedman

    • "Mud, Marine Snow and Coral Reefs," by Eric Wolanski, Robert Richmond, Laurence McCook and Hugh Sweatman

    • "Bayh-Dole Reform and the Progress of Biomedicine," by Arti K. Rai and Rebecca S. Eisenberg

    • "H2O," by David Goldes

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  • November-December - 2002 - Volume: 90 - Number: 6

    November-December 2002

    Volume: 90 Number: 6

    • "Managing the Environmental Legacy of U.S. Nuclear-Weapons Production," by Kevin D. Crowley and John F. Ahearne

    • "Why Leaves Turn Red," by David Lee and Kevin Gould

    • "The Origin of the Solar Wind," by Richard Woo and Shadia Rifai Habbal

    • "Magnetic Resonance Imaging with Polarized Gases," by Stephen Kadlecek

    • "Science as Theater," by Kirsten Shepherd-Barr and Harry Lustig

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