A fuzzy concept: Scientists turned to nature to solve a high-tech problem.

Reliable source: Women in computer science, a three-part story: Shan Lu’s research on software bugs, efforts to increase gender diversity in the Department of Computer Science, and Grace Hopper’s “first” computer bug.

Science nonfiction: We asked recently appointed computer scientists what fantastical, futuristic technology they’d like to see invented. Turns out some of their foresights aren’t so far off.

Mission: Improbable: Planetary scientists fact-check The Martian.

Lonely planets: Astronomers and planetary scientists debate if and when we’ll find extraterrestrial life.

The other one: Twins Laurie and Lynne Butler—one a UChicago chemistry professor, the other a double alumna—discuss math, horses, and a college boyfriend who never got them confused.

Left behind: Forensic Memory and “Traces” of Identity: Historian Ken Alder studies identity at the intersection of science and law.

Symbolic scavengers: Please don’t make assumptions about these nonheteronormative turkey vultures.

Mind readers: Neuroscientists Ed Awh and Ed Vogel can read thoughts and tell the future. Sort of.

Scare tactics: A popular Theater and Performance Studies course directs students on how to stage terror.

Cretaceous Park: Fourth graders bring a dinosaur to life, with help from UChicago paleontologist Paul Sereno.

A wider scope: Nancy Grace Roman, PhD’49, didn’t get tenure. She changed the course of astronomy instead.