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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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    September-October 2017

    Volume: 105 Number: 5

    • "The 'Simplest Satellite' That Opened Up the Universe," by Lev Zelenyi and Olga Zakutnyaya

    • "Why Ecology Needs Natural History," by John G. T. Anderson

    • "Structural Support for Damaged Tissue Repair," by Treena Livingston Arinzeh, Jennifer Moy, and Gloria Portocarrero Huang

    • "The Evolutionary Advantage of Burrowing Underground," by Anthony J. Martin

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  • July-August - 2017 - Volume: 105 - Number: 4

    July-August 2017

    Volume: 105 Number: 4

    • "The Colonial Origins of Tropical Field Stations," by Megan Raby

    • "Reexamining Lyell’s Laws," by Michael R. Rampino

    • "Questioning Copernican Mediocrity," by Howard A. Smith

    • "How to Tame a Fox and Build a Dog," by Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut

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  • May-June - 2017 - Volume: 105 - Number: 3

    May-June 2017

    Volume: 105 Number: 3

    • "Anyone Can Become a Troll," by Justin Cheng, Cristian Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, Jure Leskovec, and Michael Bernstein

    • "Replaying Evolution," Zachary D. Blount

    • "Circular Visualizations," by Manuel Lima

    • "The Dark Side of the Universe," by Pauline Gagnon

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  • March-April - 2017 - Volume: 105 - Number: 2

    March-April 2017

    Volume: 105 Number: 2

    • "The Biodiversity Conservation Paradox," by Mark Velland

    • "Metformin: Out of the Backwaters and into the Mainstream," by Philip A. Rea and Anderson Y. Tien

    • "Risks and Benefits of Radiation," by Timothy J. Jorgensen

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  • January-February - 2017 - Volume: 105 - Number: 1

    January-February 2017

    Volume: 105 Number: 1

    • "Blood, Guts, and Hope," by Carl M. Schoellhammer, Robert Langer, and C. Giovanni Traverso

    • "The Prospects of Artificial Endosymbioses," by Ryan Kerney, Zakiya Whatley, Sarah Rivera, and David Hewitt

    • "Photoshopping the Universe," by Travis A. Rector, Kimberly Arcand, and Megan Watzke

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  • November-December - 2016 - Volume: 104 - Number: 6

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    Volume: 104 Number: 6

    • "Harnessing the Web to Track the Next Outbreak," by Aranka Anema, Carly R. Winokur, Chi Bahk, Sumiko Mekaru, Nicholas Preston, and John S. Brownstein

    • "An Updated Prehistory of the Human Pelvis," by Caroline VanSickle

    • "Radio from the Sky," by Francis Graham-Smith

    • "The Challenge of Survival for Wild Infant Baboons," by Susan C. Alberts

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  • September-October - 2016 - Volume: 104 - Number: 5

    September-October 2016

    Volume: 104 Number: 5

    • "How Voice Pitch Influences Our Choice of Leaders," by Casey A. Klofstad, Stephen Nowicki, and Rindy C. Anderson

    • "Invasion of the Flatworms," by Ronald Sluys

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  • July-August - 2016 - Volume: 104 - Number: 4

    July-August 2016

    Volume: 104 Number: 4

    • "Coexisting with Wildfire" by Max A. Moritz and Scott Gabriel Knowles

    • "A Constructive Chemical Conversation," by Alison Grinthal, Wim L. Noorduin, and Joanna Aizenberg

    • "The Road Ahead," by Henry Petroski

    • "G. Evelyn Hutchinson's Exultation in Natural History," by Laura J. Martin

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    May-June 2016

    Volume: 104 Number: 3

    • "Energy–Water Nexus: Head-On Collision or Near Miss?" by Kristen Averyt

    • "Paradoxes, Contradictions, and the Limits of Science," by Noson S. Yanofsky

    • "The Many Faces of Fool’s Gold," by David Rickard

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  • March-April - 2016 - Volume: 104 - Number: 2

    March-April 2016

    Volume: 104 Number: 2

    • "The Visual World of Infants," by Russell D. Hamer

    • "Spring Budburst in a Changing Climate," by Richard B. Primack and Amanda S. Gallinat

    • "Meat-Eating Among the Earliest Humans," by Briana Pobiner

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