SCIENCE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘Return of The Herd’ – Ecosystem effects of migrating bison.

Bison move through Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley at sunrise. Their movements and grazing accelerate the nitrogen cycle, increasing the annual nutrition that plants provide to herbivores. After decades of recovery, bison now add heterogeneity that sustains soil nutrient storage and plant productivity while allowing plant communities to become more diverse, highlighting the importance of restoring native grazers in large numbers and with freedom to move. See page 904.

New clues found about the assembly of life’s first proteins

Lab study shows how RNA could have helped amino acids join up—without preexisting protein machinery

Europe’s biggest quake may foretell Atlantic ‘ring of fire’

Earth’s mantle is peeling from the crust in the eastern Atlantic, a possible sign of the ocean’s eventual closure