Mildred Dresselhaus, a renowned physicist and celebrated Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who earned the title “Queen of Carbon” for deepening the world’s understanding of the atomic properties of carbon and the electronic properties of materials, died on 20 February following a brief illness. She was 86.

Learn about what it's like to work in science with our series of interviews with STEM professionals.

An inquiry into mysterious elk deaths in Wyoming, a profile of a largely unknown black chemist who was a pioneer in the synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants, and a look at the merits of telling children they are smart are among the winners of the 2007 AAAS Science Journalism Awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.