Abstracts are summaries — the short paragraph that usually explains the question a study was asking and the answers it found, plus a brief overview of what methods the researchers used. Because most peer-reviewed scientific research papers sit behind big, awkward pay walls, abstracts are often the only part of the paper that you, the general public, can easily read. That’s why it’s important to know what to look for in an abstract and how to interpret the information you read there. Noah Gray, a senior editor at the journal Nature, put together an introduction to abstracts. It’s online at The Huffington Post.