All Stories
- Animals
Animals give clues to the origins of human number crunching
Guppies, dogs, chickens, crows, spiders — lots of animals have number sense without knowing numbers.
- Astronomy
Star-starved galaxies fill the cosmos
Astronomers are detecting hundreds of galaxies that are almost devoid of stars. There are at least four theories on how they got that way.
- Oceans
Coral die-off in Great Barrier Reef reaches record levels
Bleaching has killed more than two-thirds of corals in some parts of the Great Barrier Reef, scientists have confirmed.
- Life
Blue leaves help begonias harvest energy in low light
The iridescent color of some begonias comes from tiny structures that also help the plant convert dim light into energy.
- Microbes
Cut leaves in bagged salads help Salmonella grow
Juice from torn-up leafy greens helps Salmonella spread in bagged salads.
- Life
Tiny toxic proteins help gut bacteria defeat rivals
A strain of E. coli makes competition-killing tiny proteins and soothes inflamed intestines.
- Science & Society
‘The Glass Universe’ celebrates astronomy’s unsung heroines
In “The Glass Universe,” science writer Dava Sobel shines a light on the women at the Harvard Observatory who mapped the stars.
- Earth
50 years ago, nuclear blasting for gas boomed. Today it’s a bust.
50 years ago, scientists made plans to use nuclear explosions to extract natural gas from underground. In one such experiment, the gas was released but turned out to be radioactive.
- Health & Medicine
Low social status leads to off-kilter immune system
Low social status tips immune system toward inflammation seen in chronic diseases, a monkey study shows.
- Animals
Dogs form memories of experiences
New experiments suggest that dogs have some version of episodic memory, allowing them to recall specific experiences.
- Animals
Now there are two bedbug species in the United States
The tropical bedbug hadn’t been seen in Florida for decades. Now scientists have confirmed it has either resurfaced or returned.
- Astronomy
Giant gathering of galaxies discovered hiding on far side of Milky Way
An uncharted supercluster of galaxies lurks about 800 million light-years away, partly hidden by the Milky Way.
