News

Neuroscience

Brain features may reveal if placebo pills could treat chronic pain

Researchers narrow in on how to identify people who find placebos effective for treating persistent pain.

Earth

Sea level rise doesn’t necessarily spell doom for coastal wetlands

Wetlands can survive and even thrive despite rising sea levels — if humans give them room to grow.

Chemistry

A new antibiotic uses sneaky tactics to kill drug-resistant superbugs

Scientists have developed a molecule that kills off bacteria that are resistant to existing antibiotics.

Archaeology

This South African cave stone may bear the world’s oldest drawing

The Stone Age line design could have held special meaning for its makers, a new study finds.

Materials Science

Here’s how graphene could make future electronics superfast

Graphene-based electronics that operate at terahertz frequencies would be much speedier successors to today’s silicon-based devices.

Physics

A new hydrogen-rich compound may be a record-breaking superconductor

The record for the highest-temperature superconductor may be toast.

Science & Society

Before it burned, Brazil’s National Museum gave much to science

When Brazil’s National Museum went up in flames, so did the hard work of the researchers who work there.

Oceans

A massive net is being deployed to pick up plastic in the Pacific

As the Ocean Cleanup project embarks, critics remain unconvinced that scooping up debris is the best way to solve the ocean’s plastic problem.

Health & Medicine

Teens born from assisted pregnancies may have higher blood pressure

Kids born from reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization are susceptible to high blood pressure as adolescents, a small study finds.

Psychology

Huge ‘word gap’ holding back low-income children may not exist after all

The claim that poor children hear fewer words than kids from higher-income families faces a challenge.

Climate

As temperatures rise, so do insects’ appetites for corn, rice and wheat

Hotter, hungrier pests likely to do 10 percent to 25 percent more damage to grains for each warmer degree.

Physics

The strength of gravity has been measured to new precision

Researchers have measured Newton’s gravitational constant, known as Big G, with the greatest precision yet.