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January 2015

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Features

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Hanging by a String

The theory that the universe is made up of invisible “strings” rocked physics 30 years ago. Does it still have any pull?

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From Selma to Ferguson

Biographer Taylor Branch makes a timely argument about Martin Luther King Jr.’s true legacy

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The Lady Vanishes

Whenever someone advances a new claim about Amelia Earhart—such as the recent one that a piece of her plane had been identified—the farther she seems to recede into myth

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The Year that the Stars Fell

A pictographic calendar evokes the lost world of the Lakota

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PTSD: The Civil War's Hidden Legacy

One hundred and fifty years later, historians are discovering some of the earliest known cases of post-traumatic stress disorder

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Darwin's Forgotten World

Australia’s Blue Mountains influenced the great thinker’s understanding of evolution as profoundly as the Galápagos

Descent of Man

A new poem by Timothy Steele

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When Dinosaurs Were Doomed

Canada’s badlands are the place to see fantastic dinosaur fossils (and kitsch)—and eye-opening new evidence from the eve of their destruction

Bill Nye

Bill Nye on the Risks of Not Debating With Creationists

Bill Nye the Science Guy has a book out on evolution. Here’s what he has to say

Ancestor's Trail

Evotourism: Great Places to Celebrate Evolution Around the Globe

From lemurs to Neanderthals, here's our latest guide so you can travel the globe to enjoy what Darwin famously called "endless forms most beautiful"

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Mountain of Life

A hike to the “Top of Texas,” the world’s most famous fossil reef, leads to a new sense of the sublime

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Phenomena

Game Changer

The secret history of Monopoly

Phenomena

Unseen America

“New” photos by Gordon Parks

Phenomena

No Year’s Eve?

Physicists engage in a strange debate about whether time really passes

Phenomena

Quotations For Sale

Saying exactly what Churchill said isn’t easy—or cheap

Phenomena

Small Talk: Kevin Ashton

The consumer sensor expert who coined the phrase "the Internet of Things" has a new book, How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery

Phenomena

Brain Scan

Why the leatherback turtle has a skylight in its head

Phenomena

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Fast Forward

Virtually Alive

Through OpenWorm, scientists are hoping to allow anyone with a computer to unlock the secrets of animal behavior