Dodie Kazanjin, like millions of Americans, was unhappy with her "frown lines . and bags under the eyes." Her solution? Botox. She described her experience, what felt like being "stung by a hundred killer bees," in an August Vogue magazine article. She received five injections of the drug into her forehead, and endured the stinging pain for 10 minutes before it began to subside. Within half an hour, though, the Botox began to take effect, and she was ultimately pleased with the treatment. She says she feels as though she's "taken the first step, gotten [her] feet wet," and found that Botox isn't so bad after all.

Through thick, awkward gloves, the astronaut can feel the sturdiness of the cold metal ladder beneath him. The sudden intensity of a droplet of sweat running down his temple makes him intently aware of his pulse, the precious oxygen shuttled 250 million miles for him to breathe, the weight of his legs after a year in space. Landing gently on brittle and foreign soil, he looks for a moment at the unfamiliar reddened sky, the blood-red rocks and rusty dust, the horizon so unnaturally close, and the hills so unnaturally smooth. Millions of miles from the seas and trees of his ancestors, the generations of brilliance that dreamed of this moment, and the world that now holds its breath, he can find only one word to greet the greatest adventure now beginning: Mars.

You live somewhere in North America and are addicted to science. However, you have already perused the latest science books on Borders' bookshelves, read Edward E.O. Wilson's On Human Nature five times, and you have already watched all the re-runs of the science programs on television. Now where are you going turn to satiate your scientific interests?

Take a good bite into that meaty chicken leg and savor it. What does it taste like (and yes, tasting like chicken is a given)? But is that tingling flavor in your mouth sweet, salty, sour, or bitter? If you haven't smothered your chicken in barbecue sauce or drenched it in marinade, that savory flavor may not be quite like any of the four traditional tastes. In fact, the main "deliciousness" energizing your taste buds is umami, the fifth taste.

During the sultry summer months in quiet towns across the United States, mothers are making their children wait to go outside and play. Why is the fun being taken out of these precious last hours of daylight? A villain lurks outside, more evil, more aggravating, and the cause of more itching than you can imagine , the mosquito. Mothers in the United States have long been used to battling the mosquito's wrath during the summer months by insisting , amidst all the moaning and complaining , that their children be thoroughly sprayed with mosquito repellent before they can play outside after dinner. But the goal used to be simply to avoid the itch that resulted from the mosquitoes' bites. Why is this practice now becoming more and more prevalent all over the country?

Along with Lord of the Rings, David Blaine in a box and the Atkins diet, food intolerance is fast becoming the next big thing. A recent study published in the medical journal The Lancet suggests that 19.4% of the British population believe they have a food intolerance, when in fact the actual prevalence is 1.4%.

Just off the Florida coastline, you'll find manatees grazing on bright green tufts of sea grass and floating peacefully on the ocean's surface. Their massive body size , they weigh as much as cars , allows them to avoid worrying about predators. With their firm position atop the food chain, manatees have not significantly evolved for at least 40 million years. Indeed, manatees seem to lead an idyllic life.

In 1994, Leonard M. Adleman, a professor at the University of Southern California, created a storm of excitement in the computing world when he announced that he had solved a famous computation problem. There was nothing remarkable about the problem itself, which dealt with finding the shortest route through a series of points. Nor was there anything special about how long it took Adleman to solve it , seven days , substantially greater than the few minutes it would take an average person to find a solution. What was exciting about Adleman's achievement was that he had solved the problem using nothing but deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and molecular chemistry.

Smallpox, a disease caused by the variola virus, has been absent from the globe for more than 25 years and absent from the United States since 1949. Recent events, however, have led the U.S. government to fear that smallpox could be used in a bioterrorist attack. Due to this possibility, President George Bush announced a plan in December 2002 to vaccinate nearly one million military personnel and healthcare workers against smallpox.

It lives where most life does not... enduring and proliferating. It wreaks havoc in the cracks and crevasses of the skin and other mucous membranes, often causing discomfort and cosmetic embarrassment.

Most people are at least somewhat familiar with Charles Darwin and his writings on natural selection. He wrote that those individuals who were better suited to their environments would be more likely to reproduce. Over time, this would cause a shift in the overall properties of the population. Today, we recognize the relationship between natural selection and evolution as random mutations in the genetic material of some population's members, which, in turn, will cause variety in that population. Because all individuals are different, it is only natural to expect varying levels of ability, intelligence, appearance, limitations, goals, decision-making, etc. This leaves no room to doubt that a particular organism's genetic composition will naturally make it more compatible with its environment than some other member of the same population. It's really just common sense, and, it makes a pretty solid basis for the principles of evolution and speciation.

The surface of Jupiter's second moon is one of the most twisted, chaotic, and intriguing surfaces in the solar system. Delicate, sinuous cracks weave across the whole of Europa; tilted blocks of ice, miles high, break the surface. Scientists have found evidence of cryo-volcanoes (volcanoes that erupt ice and slush instead of lava) and the Galileo spacecraft has collected gravity measurements showing that a deep ocean of liquid water exists under miles of icy crust. With so many phenomenal surface features, it is no wonder that astronomers have overlooked the tiny dark blotches that spot the face of the moon. Yet these blotches may be one of the most interesting - and useful - aspects of Europa yet discovered.

As Archimedes could attest, inspiration can strike anywhere. Legend has it that the ancient Greek thinker discovered the mathematical laws governing buoyancy in a bathhouse while idly watching soap float. The nature of scientific research has changed since the third century B.C., but the spirit of observational inquiry that led to Archimedes's principle is still active.

On Dec. 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright launched two very important things: the first controllable, powered aircraft, and the chain of events that would lead to the invention of the Big Mac®. The first of these two breakthroughs is well known - every schoolchild in America knows about the bicycle repairmen who flew at Kitty Hawk. Their connection to the McDonald's fast food chain, however, is utterly unheard of.

Biology first, chemistry second, physics third: The traditional American high school science curriculum follows this order. Education reformers do not believe this needs to be the case. In part due to poor student performance in international science assessments, some educators are rethinking the way science should be taught in the United States.

Russell Marker hated wasting time. Upon qualifying for a doctoral degree in chemistry as a twenty-three-year-old student at the University of Maryland in 1925, all that stood between him and his degree were several required physical chemistry courses. But Marker didn't want to take physical chemistry, as he already had a master's degree in the subject. The university refused to modify its graduation requirements and Marker's own advisor threatened him with the dead end career of "urine analyst" if he didn't complete his coursework. Marker refused and left the university without his degree, an independent scientist in search of a job.