All Stories
- Life
Why cracking your knuckles can be so noisy
Knuckles crack due to the partial collapse of bubbles in joint fluid, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Opioids kill. Here’s how an overdose shuts down your body
Powerful opioids affect many parts of the body, but the drugs’ most deadly effects are on breathing.
- Archaeology
Footprints put people on Canada’s west coast 13,000 years ago
Island tracks indicate early New World settlers traveled down the North American Pacific coast about 13,000 years ago.
- Materials Science
Live heart cells make this material shift color like a chameleon
A new material made of heart cells from rats and hydrogel changes color as the living cells contract and relax.
- Neuroscience
Brain waves of concertgoers sync up at shows
During a live musical performance, audience members’ brain waves get in sync.
- Astronomy
Dark matter is MIA in this strange galaxy
A galaxy without dark matter bolsters the case that the invisible substance really exists.
- Health & Medicine
Umbilical cord banking gets a lot of buzz. Why all the excitement?
Here are the facts behind the promise of umbilical cord banking and cord blood transplants.
- Neuroscience
Parents’ presence promotes a child’s pluck
Parents’ presence or absence during a learning exercise determines whether their child is fearful later, or willing to explore.
- Health & Medicine
Kid-friendly e-cigarette ads appear to work
Teens who hadn’t used tobacco products but were receptive to e-cigarettes ads were more likely to try vaping or smoking.
- Earth
Powerful New England quake recorded in pond mud
The newfound sediment signature of the 1755 Cape Ann earthquake could be used to trace other prehistoric temblors.
- Life
‘Nanobot’ viruses tag and round up bacteria in food and water
Viruses called phages evolved to hunt bacteria. With magnetic nanoparticles and genetic engineering, they become nanobots that work for us.
- Planetary Science
Water may have killed Mars’ magnetic field
Extra hydrogen near the Red Planet’s iron core could have shut down convection.
