All Stories
- Health & Medicine
The United States and Brazil top the list of nations with the most gun deaths
Globally, the estimated number of gun deaths due to homicides, suicides and unintentional injuries went up from 1990 to 2016.
- Particle Physics
An elusive Higgs boson decay has finally been spotted
Two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider confirm that the Higgs boson decays into bottom quark pairs.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum computer simulates two types of bizarre materials
In calculations involving about 2,000 quantum bits, a D-Wave machine reproduced the behavior of exotic substances.
- Health & Medicine
As algae blooms increase, scientists seek better ways to predict these toxic tides
Scientists around the United States are developing programs that can predict harmful algal blooms in advance.
- Science & Society
5 decades after his death, George Gamow’s contributions to science survive
George Gamow, irreverent physicist and prolific popularizer, died half a century ago.
- Physics
Here’s how to bend spaghetti to your will
Researchers have discovered how to snap spaghetti sticks without sending bits of pasta flying.
- Animals
Naked mole-rats eat the poop of their queen for parenting cues
Hormones in the naked mole-rat queen’s poop turn subordinate nest-mates into surrogate parents.
- Psychology
‘Replication crisis’ spurs reforms in how science studies are done
Redos of social sciences studies from major journals point to opportunities for improvement.
- Chemistry
See the ‘periodic table’ of molecular knots
A new table of knots points the way to twisting molecules in increasingly complex pretzels.
- Planetary Science
OSIRIS-REx snaps first images of asteroid Bennu
OSIRIS-REx got its first glimpse of near-Earth asteroid Bennu. The probe will collect a sample from the asteroid and return it to Earth.
- Astronomy
Strange gamma rays from the sun may help decipher its magnetic fields
The sun spits out more and weirder gamma rays than anyone expected, which could give a new view of the sun’s magnetic fields.
- Animals
There’s method in a firefly’s flashes
Fireflies use their flashing lights for mating and maybe even to ward away predators.
