All Stories
- Animals
If you want to believe your home’s bug free, don’t read this book
‘Never Home Alone’ reveals the hidden world living in human-made spaces.
- Chemistry
New devices could help turn atmospheric CO2 into useful supplies
New electrochemical cells transform carbon monoxide into useful chemical compounds like ethylene and acetate much more efficiently than their predecessors.
- Archaeology
People in the Pacific Northwest smoked tobacco long before Europeans showed up
Ancient indigenous groups in the Pacific Northwest used tobacco roughly 600 years before European settlers ventured west with the plant.
- Archaeology
Ancient South Americans tasted chocolate 1,500 years before anyone else
Artifacts with traces of cacao push back the known date for when the plant was first domesticated by 1,500 years.
By Bruce Bower - Chemistry
Zapping substances with electrons can quickly map chemical structures
Speedy molecular identification originally developed for proteins might benefit crime lab researchers and drugmakers.
By Carmen Drahl - Climate
‘18 Miles’ is full of interesting tales about Earth’s atmosphere
The new book ‘18 Miles’ takes readers on a journey through the atmosphere and the history of understanding climate and weather.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
What the approval of the new flu drug Xofluza means for you
Xofluza, the first flu antiviral to be approved in 20 years, works differently from other flu drugs.
- Animals
While eating, these tiny worms release chemicals to lure their next meal
As they eat insects, one nematode species releases chemicals that attract more insect prey.
By Yao-Hua Law - Animals
Coral larvae survive being frozen and thawed for the first time
Cryopreservation might help save some coral reefs at risk from climate change and other dangers.
By Susan Milius - Paleontology
The first vertebrates on Earth arose in shallow coastal waters
After appearing about 480 million years ago in coastal waters, the earliest vertebrates stayed in the shallows for another 100 million years.
- Life
To get a deeper tan, don’t sunbathe every day
Skin cells make protective melanin on a 48-hour cycle.
- Animals
How a snake named Hannibal led to a discovery about cobra cannibalism
Scientists discovered that cobras in southern Africa eat each other more often than thought. And that may be true for cobras in other places as well.