News in Brief

  1. Animals

    Honeybees fumble their way to blueberry pollination

    Blueberry flowers drive honeybees to grappling, even stomping a leg or two down a bloom throat, to reach pollen.

    By Susan Milius
  2. Astronomy

    A sandy core may have kept Enceladus’ ocean warm

    Friction in Enceladus’ porous core could help heat its ocean enough to keep it liquid for billions of years.

    By Lisa Grossman
  3. Climate

    Humans are driving climate change, federal scientists say

    Human influence “extremely likely” to be dominant cause of warming in last 70 years, U.S. climate report finds.

    By Carolyn Gramling
  4. Earth

    Dino-dooming asteroid impact created a chilling sulfur cloud

    The Chicxulub impact spewed more sulfur than previously believed.

    By Laurel Hamers
  5. Earth

    A deadly 2014 landslide’s power came from soils weakened by past slides

    Researchers reconstruct how a hillside failed, producing the deadly 2014 Oso landslide.

    By Carolyn Gramling
  6. Astronomy

    An interstellar asteroid might have just been spotted for the first time

    A newly spotted asteroid might be the first known to come from outside the solar system, and it could carry information about the makeup of alien planet systems.

    By Lisa Grossman
  7. Animals

    Climate change may threaten these bamboo-eating lemurs

    Longer dry spells and more nutrient-poor bamboo might eventually doom the greater bamboo lemur, a critically endangered species.

    By Susan Milius
  8. Tech

    This is the lightest robot that can fly, swim and take off from water

    Lightweight, insect-inspired robot can swim, fly and leap from the surface of water.

    By Mariah Quintanilla
  9. Quantum Physics

    Light’s weird dual nature weathers trip to space and back

    “Delayed-choice” experiment performed in space reaffirms the idea that light can behave like a wave or a particle.

    By Emily Conover
  10. Genetics

    Inbreeding hurts the next generation’s reproductive success

    Inbreeding has evolutionary consequences for humans.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  11. Genetics

    Mating with Neandertals reintroduced ‘lost’ DNA into modern humans

    Neandertal DNA brought back some old genetic heirlooms to modern humans.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  12. Environment

    Pollution killed 9 million people in 2015

    First global look estimates the massive human and financial toll caused by pollution-related health problems.

    By Laura Beil