Slideshow: Solving the Easter Island mysteries var FO = { movie:"http://images.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/53425/easter.swf", width:"600", height:"580", majorversion:"8", build:"0"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content:

The stone statues of Easter Island Credit: Courtesy of Terry Hunt" />The stone statues of Easter Island Credit: Courtesy of Terry Hunt Related: Slideshow: Solving the Easter Island mysteries On one side of a quarry roughly two-thirds the size of a football field is "El Gigante," a half-finished stone statue seven stories tall, and weighing almost 300 tons. Prehistoric tools lie scattered nearby. Whoever made these head-and-torso statues, kno

On the Panda Trail In our May issue, contributor Jerry Guo traveled to the Wolong Nature Reserve in China's Sichuan Province to learn what researchers there are doing to increase the panda population. Here, see the pandas at play - and what they leave behind. var FO = { movie:"http://images.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/53136/panda.swf", width:"552", height:"600", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash

Related Articles Slideshow: On the panda trail On a March afternoon, there are so many pandas in the ?kindergarten pen? at Wolong Nature Reserve in China?s Sichuan Province, it?s hard to keep track of their antics. One is attempting a handstand while three others are playing king of the hill. These carefree cubs ? a record 19 from Wolong?s 2006 breeding season ? are part of the dramatic comeback for a symbol of conservation: the giant panda. The toddlers may one day follow Xiangxi

With the Beijing Olympics just a year away, and desert dunes now only 150 miles away from the city, officials have been dreaming big when it comes to battling legendary Chinese sandstorms in the capital and across the country?s arid north. In 2001, the government approved a new phase of an $8 billion antidesertification campaign, stretching from the capital to Inner Mongolia. The 4,500 kilometer shelterbelt ? with 25 million hectares of trees planted and

In our May issue, contributor Jerry Guo traveled to the Wolong Nature Reserve in China's Sichuan Province to learn what researchers there are doing to increase the panda population. Here, see the pandas at play ? and what they leave behind.