All Stories
- Plants
Tree tops sparkle with electricity during thunderstorms
Ultraviolet cameras captured faint electrical flashes from leaves and branches as storm charges built up in the atmosphere.
- Climate
Lakes are growing in Alaska. That’s not entirely a bad thing
Alaska’s glacial lakes are growing as glaciers retreat out of basins. These lakes will change desolate glacial rivers into thriving salmon habitat.
- Physics
When the pressure’s off, this superconductor appears to break records
A sudden release of pressure allowed a copper-based compound to superconduct at the highest temperature yet for atmospheric pressure, a study claims.
- Health & Medicine
How does early pregnancy lower breast cancer risk? Odd cells could offer clues
Suspicious cells build up in mice that haven’t given birth, a new study finds. They could help explain a longstanding mystery of breast cancer biology.
- Planetary Science
NASA’s DART spacecraft changed an asteroid’s orbit around the sun
A 2022 NASA mission changed the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos around its companion. New data shows their joint orbit around the sun also changed.
- Neuroscience
The remarkable brains of ‘SuperAgers’ hold clues about how we age
A new study reports signs that nerve cells in the brain keep dividing over the decades. It’s not so simple.
- Tech
Robots with fingernails can grasp thin edges
A robotic hand with fingernail-like tips lets robots peel fruit, open lids and pick up thin, flat objects with more precise, human-like dexterity.
- Animals
A koala population’s rapid rebound may let it escape inbreeding’s perils
As koalas in southern Australia have grown from a few hundred to almost half a million, the marsupials show signs of regaining lost genetic variation.
- Chemistry
This molecule puts a new twist on the Möbius strip
A molecule made of carbon and chlorine is half as twisty as the paper loops common in math classes.
- Plants
Chickpeas can grow in moon dirt and make seeds
Chickpeas produced seeds in simulated lunar soil, offering clues for future space farming.
- Planetary Science
A Titan collision may link Saturn’s tilt, its moon Hyperion and its rings
A new study proposes that a crash between Titan and another moon spawned Hyperion and, much later, destabilized Saturn’s inner moons into rings.
- Climate
Hundreds of studies have missed how much the oceans are rising
A widely used method to calculate sea level rise may have missed up to a century of change, so the risks could hit home for millions sooner than thought.
