All Stories
- Animals
Crabs’ sideways walk may have evolved just once
A study of 50 crab species in Japan traces the iconic sideways walk to a single ancestor, suggesting the trait drove the group's remarkable diversity.
- Science & Society
Our understanding of Charles Darwin continues to evolve
Historian Janet Browne’s Darwin: A Biography lifts the curtain on the private life of Charles Darwin, one of science’s most controversial pioneers.
- Microbes
A Greenland explorer will eat only decaying seal for a month
British chef Mike Keen will ski across Greenland eating only fermented seal. Researchers will study how the Inuit diet shapes gut health.
- Physics
Water drops on soap bubble films act like merging galaxies
Water droplets on soap films orbited and merged like colliding galaxies, a technique that could help scientists study the cosmos.
- Science & Society
AI can take the friction out of life, but some effort can be good
Technologies, including chatbots, promise to make life easier. But removing the friction, or effort involved in thinking, has costs.
- Animals
Female rats like a different kind of tickling than males
Female rats prefer gentler tickling, a finding that could reshape animal happiness research.
- Archaeology
First evidence of Neandertal dentistry found in ancient molar
A 59,000-year-old Neandertal molar unearthed in Siberia was drilled with a stone tool – the earliest evidence of primitive dentistry.
- Health & Medicine
Hantavirus questions grow in the wake of a cruise ship outbreak
Scientists still don’t know why Andes hantavirus is the only one shown to spread from person to person.
- Physics
To get string theory, you need only four physics assumptions
Tenets of quantum mechanics and special relativity, among other theoretical ideas, lead inexorably to string theory.
- Earth
The crust under Africa is thinning in a way that hasn’t been seen before
Africa’s Turkana Rift Zone, a hotbed of hominin fossils, is caught in the act of “necking," a critical transition toward continental breakup.
- Animals
Territorial conflict may explain male primates’ large size
Male primates may be larger than females partly because of pressure from rival groups, not just competition with males inside their own group.
- Math
Jazz and classical music have become simpler, a new study finds
Mathematical analysis suggests that melodies and harmonies have become less complex as music evolves and musicians find new ways “to create great music.”
