News
- Plants
The most ancient African baobabs are dying and no one knows why
Scientists aren’t sure what’s killing the oldest African baobabs, nine of which have lost big chunks or died in the last 13 years.
- Astronomy
Magnetic fields may be propping up the Pillars of Creation
Scientists made a map of the magnetic field within the Pillars of Creation, a star-forming area depicted in an iconic Hubble Space Telescope image.
- Health & Medicine
The number of teens who report having sex is down
About 40 percent of high school students are having sex, the lowest amount in the last three decades.
- Earth
Underwater fiber-optic cables could moonlight as earthquake sensors
The seafloor cables that ferry internet traffic across oceans may soon find another use: detecting underwater earthquakes.
- Animals
Here’s what narwhals sound like underwater
Scientists eavesdropped while narwhals clicked and buzzed. The work could help pinpoint how the whales may react to more human noise in the Arctic.
- Climate
Antarctica has lost about 3 trillion metric tons of ice since 1992
Antarctica’s rate of ice loss has sped up since 1992 — mostly in the last five years, raising global sea level by almost 8 millimeters on average.
- Environment
Sunshine is making Deepwater Horizon oil stick around
Sunlight created oxygen-rich oil by-products that are still hanging around eight years after the Deepwater Horizon spill.
- Astronomy
The sun shrinks a teensy bit when it’s feeling active
The radius of the sun gets slightly smaller during periods of high solar activity, researchers say.
- Health & Medicine
Kids with food allergies are twice as likely to have autism
Children with food allergies are more likely to have autism than kids without, a study finds. But that doesn’t mean a child will develop the disorder.
- Archaeology
This theory suggests few workers were needed to cap Easter Island statues
A small workforce may have put huge stones on the heads of Easter Island statues.
- Animals
Bees join an exclusive crew of animals that get the concept of zero
Honeybees can pass a test of ranking ‘nothing’ as less than one.
- Planetary Science
Curiosity finds that Mars’ methane changes with the seasons
The Curiosity rover found seasonally changing methane in Mars’ atmosphere and more signs of organic molecules in an ancient lake bed.
