News
- Earth
Satellites discover new Arctic islands
Danish researchers analyzing satellite observations of remote Tobias Island, discovered in 1993 off the northeastern coast of Greenland, have stumbled upon a new group of small islands nearby.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
A tasty discovery about the tongue
Scientists can now explain how the tongue tastes the amino acids in proteins.
By John Travis - Animals
Real pandas do handstands
A giant panda that upends itself into a handstand may be sending a message that it's one big bamboo-thrasher and not to be messed with.
By Susan Milius - Chemistry
Noble gases and uranium get cozy
Chemists have created the first compounds containing both uranium and noble gases.
- Health & Medicine
Clotting protein hinders nerve repair
A blood-clotting protein called fibrin seems to exacerbate the regrowth problems that plague severed nerves.
By Nathan Seppa - Animals
Nephews, Cousins . . . Who Cares? Detecting kin doesn’t mean favoring them
New tests of the amazing nose power of Belding's ground squirrels has solved a 25-year-old puzzle about doing dangerous favors for relatives.
By Susan Milius - Earth
All Cracked Up from the Heat? Major hunk of an Antarctic ice shelf shatters and drifts away
A Rhode Island-size section of an Antarctic ice shelf splintered into thousands of icebergs in a mere 5-week period during the area's warmest summer on record.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Deciphering Virulence: Heart-harming bacteria flaunt unique viral genes
By documenting genetic variation among bacteria responsible for a heart-damaging illness known as rheumatic fever, researchers may have opened paths to new preventive measures and treatments.
By Ben Harder -
Bright Idea: Protein relocation helps eyes adapt to light
Animals appear to adapt to bright light by reducing their use of proteins involved in the eye's light-detecting systems.
By John Travis - Astronomy
Long Ago and Far Away: Astronomers find distant galaxy, early cluster
Peering ever deeper into space and further back in time, two teams of astronomers have uncovered new details about the earliest galaxies and galaxy clusters in the universe.
By Ron Cowen - Archaeology
Wild Chimps Rocked On: Apes left unique record of stone tools
Researchers have uncovered the first archaeological site attributed to chimpanzees, which includes stone implements that were used to crack nuts on top of thick tree roots.
By Bruce Bower -
Icy Birth? Amino acids form in simulations of space ice
Two experiments simulating the environment of interstellar space have produced amino acids—the building blocks of proteins.