PNAS Science Sessions

L. Mahadevan, Petur Bryde, and Suraj Shankar explain the otherworldly sounds of the musical saw.

Guido Friebel discusses the lack of gender parity in academic positions in economics.

Christianne Corbett and Robb Willer explore perceptions of electability of female political candidates.

A feature episode explores recent developments and future research directions in treating cystic fibrosis.

Martijn van de Pol reports that approximately half of the changes in the traits of 60 European bird species can be attributed to rising mean temperatures.

Brenhin Keller and Kalin McDannell explore the origins of a worldwide gap in the geologic record spanning hundreds of millions to billions of years.

Neda Maghbouleh, Ariela Schachter, and René Flores explore the US Census classification of people with Middle Eastern and North African ancestry.

Thema Monroe-White and Cassidy Sugimoto discuss how disparities at the intersection of race and gender affect the expansion of scientific knowledge.

Researchers explore cutting-edge approaches to coral reef conservation. Image credit: Cody Engelsma (Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, FL).

Researchers explore cutting-edge approaches to coral reef conservation. Image credit: Cody Engelsma (Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, FL).

Ray Block Jr. and John Holbein report that Americans are more likely to respond to an emailed survey request from a sender with a putatively White name than a sender with a putatively Black name. Image credit: iStock/Prostock-Studio.

A collection of research articles explores how tropical ecosystems have borne the brunt of the human impact on the environment. Image credit: Pixabay/Pexels.

A collection of research articles explores how tropical ecosystems have borne the brunt of the human impact on the environment. Image credit: Pixabay/Pexels.

A special episode explores the state of CRISPR use in agriculture. Image credit: Can Stock Photo/molekuul.

A special episode explores the state of CRISPR use in agriculture. Image credit: Can Stock Photo/molekuul.

Rodrigo Cámara-Leret explains the impact of indigenous language extinction on medicinal plant knowledge. Image credit: Pixabay/DEZALB.

Nicolas Taberlet and Nicolas Plihon explore the physical explanation for a fascinating natural phenomenon: the formation of Zen stones on frozen lakes. Image credit: N. Taberlet, N. Plihon. Lab Physique ENS de Lyon and CNRS.

Hessam Azarijafari, Randy Kirchain, and Jeremy Gregory explore how innovations in the concrete industry can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Image credit: Pexels/Life Of Pix.

Sarah Chambliss discusses racial and ethnic disparities in exposure to air pollutants. Image credit: Pixabay/sueegeneris.

Maggie Wagner and Manuel Kleiner report that the interaction between maize and soil microbes influences hybrid vigor. Image credit: Kayla M. Clouse.

Gaige Kerr discusses racial disparities in atmospheric levels of nitrogen dioxide in the United States.

Stephanie Marciniak, Logan Kistler, and Ed Louis describe an extinct giant lemur.

Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, John T. Abatzoglou, and Mojtaba Sadegh report that forest fires have been advancing upslope across the western United States in recent decades.

Eran Amichai investigates how bats know the speed of sound.

Mike Gil discusses how changes in animal behavior can affect ecosystems.

Brad Greenwood explains how patient–physician racial concordance decreases Black infant mortality.

Vinay Pathak describes when and where HIV sheds its capsid coating while infecting human cells.

Jeannie Lee describes the discovery of self-cleaving ribozymes.

Josh Bongard describes AI-designed, reconfigurable biological organisms made from frog cells.

Jonathon Yuly, David Beratan, and Peng Zhang investigate how electron bifurcation reactions work.

Adam Mastroianni and Daniel Gilbert explore why conversations almost never end when people want them to.

Joe Levy shows how glaciers on Mars can reveal its climate history.

Marianne Alleyne, Aimy Wissa, and Ophelia Bolmin explain how the click beetle amplifies power to pull off its signature jump.

Mara Reed and Michael Manga explore why Yellowstone's Steamboat Geyser resumed erupting in 2018.

Martin Bizzarro tells what zircon crystals reveal about the geological history of Mars.

Aleix Martinez explains why facial expressions often are not accurate indicators of emotion.

Amanda Rodewald, Ivan Rudik, and Catherine Kling talk about the hazards of ozone pollution to birds.

Se-Jin Lee and Emily Germain-Lee explain a way to preserve bone and muscle mass during spaceflight.

David Crowder and Gengping Zhu explain how to predict the spread of the Asian giant hornet.

Brian Fields explores a hypothesis that a supernova may be responsible for a mass extinction.

Eric Horvitz discusses AI's promises and perils.

Juliana Vianna and Rauri Bowie explain the origin and diversification of penguins.

William Nordhaus explains the economic consequences of Greenland ice sheet melt.

NAS member Dalton Conley explains how the Vietnam War draft lotteries are a natural experiment for studying how military service affects life outcomes.

Clark Larsen describes the costs of urban life a Neolithic city.

Mette Svenning and Alexander Tveit describe a bacterium that can live on gases in the air.

Derek Moulton explains the mathematics behind bivalve shell design.

Eelco Tromer and Jolien van Hooff explain the origins of the kinetochore in eukaryotic cells.

Fabiola Gianotti, Marcia McNutt, and Donna Shalala discuss the past, present, and future of women in STEM.

Francesco Paesani, Thomas Zeuch, and Valeria Molinero discuss the size limits of ice crystals.