All Stories

  1. Chemistry

    X-rays reveal portrait hiding beneath Degas masterpiece

    X-ray technique reveals an additional painting hiding behind Edgar Degas’ "Portrait of a Woman."

    By Helen Thompson
  2. Animals

    Smart mice have better odds of survival

    African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio) may survive summer droughts by their wits, a study suggests.

    By Helen Thompson
  3. Planetary Science

    Ceres is more than just a space rock

    Dawn spacecraft reveals that the dwarf planet Ceres hides a core of solid rock beneath an outer crust of minerals, salts and ices.

    By Christopher Crockett
  4. Animals

    Bird-friendly yards have a major downside — for birds

    Vegetation and feeders bring birds into our yards. But those lures also bring more birds to collide with the windows in our homes.

    By Sarah Zielinski
  5. Animals

    Diversity of indoor insects, spiders adds to life’s luxuries in high-income neighborhoods

    A massive survey of indoor spiders and insects in town finds dozens of different scientific families in homes, more in high-income neighborhoods.

    By Susan Milius
  6. Neuroscience

    Running doesn’t make rats forgetful

    Running doesn’t seem to wipe out old memories in rats, concludes a new study that contradicts earlier reports suggesting that exercise does actually help old memories fade and new memories form — in other rodents.

    By Meghan Rosen
  7. Anthropology

    Oldest evidence of cancer in human family tree found

    Bony growths on fossils may push origins of this disease way back in the Stone Age.

    By Bruce Bower
  8. Health & Medicine

    Zika-carrying mosquitoes eluding control efforts in Miami

    Florida adds 10 new cases of locally acquired Zika infection, prompting the CDC to issue travel warning for pregnant women. Mosquitoes in Miami may be resistant to insecticides.

    By Meghan Rosen
  9. Paleontology

    Woolly mammoths’ last request: Got water?

    Woolly mammoths survived on an Alaskan island thousands of years after mainland mammoths went extinct. But they died out when their lakes dried up, thanks to a warming climate and rising sea levels.

    By Laurel Hamers
  10. Health & Medicine

    Mosquitoes in Florida now spreading Zika virus, health officials warn

    Florida adds 10 new cases of locally acquired Zika infection, prompting the CDC to issue travel warning for pregnant women. Mosquitoes in Miami may be resistant to insecticides.

    By Meghan Rosen
  11. Health & Medicine

    Florida mosquitoes likely spreading Zika

    Mosquitoes in Florida carrying the Zika virus are probably to blame for four recent cases of infection.

    By Meghan Rosen
  12. Animals

    Pup kidnapping has a happy ending when a seal gets two moms

    A female fur seal kidnapped another seal’s pup. But this turned out to be a positive the young seal, scientists found.

    By Sarah Zielinski