News

  1. Astronomy

    Asteroids or planets might trigger a supernova

    Rocky debris falling onto a white dwarf might trigger some supernovas.

    By Christopher Crockett
  2. Materials Science

    Oxygen sneaks into titanium, making it brittle

    Oxygen atoms trigger defects in titanium’s atomic structure, making the metal brittle.

    By Beth Mole
  3. Physics

    Temperatures taken in the realm of the tiny

    Aluminum and other materials can serve as their own thermometers at nanometer scales, opening up the possibility of taking the temperature of tiny computer transistors.

    By Andrew Grant
  4. Neuroscience

    Shots of brain cells restore learning, memory in rats

    Scientists healed damage caused to rats’ brains from radiation by injecting cells that replenish the insulation on neurons.

    By Kate Baggaley
  5. Neuroscience

    With good timing, experiences can rewire old brains

    New experiences can rewire old brains — but the timing has to be just right.

    By Ashley Yeager
  6. Paleontology

    Monkeys reached Americas about 36 million years ago

    Peruvian fossils suggest ancient African primates somehow crossed the Atlantic Ocean and gave rise to South American monkeys.

    By Bruce Bower
  7. Earth

    Geologists discover tectonic plate’s slippery underbelly

    Slippery layer of partially melted rock underneath tectonic plate revealed using reflected dynamite blast vibrations.

    By Thomas Sumner
  8. Animals

    Cockroach personalities can speed or slow group decisions

    The mix of temperaments in an alarmed cluster of cockroaches changes how quickly they make group decisions.

    By Susan Milius
  9. Humans

    Baby brains undergo dramatic changes in utero

    Developing human brains experience more than 28,000 changes in a molecular process that governs gene activity.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  10. Anthropology

    Ancient Maya bookmakers get paged in Guatemala

    New discoveries peg ritual specialists as force behind bark-paper tomes and wall murals.

    By Bruce Bower
  11. Cosmology

    Dust erases evidence for gravity wave detection

    The claimed detection of primordial gravitational waves does not hold up after taking into account galactic dust, a new analysis concludes.

    By Andrew Grant
  12. Neuroscience

    Chicks show left-to-right number bias

    Recently hatched chicks may have their own version of the left-to-right mental number line.

    By Susan Milius