News
- Chemistry
Solar blobs collide with a bounce
Superhot ejections from the sun surprise physicists by gaining energy of motion in collision.
By Tanya Lewis - Science & Society
Banks err by confusing risk, uncertainty
Too much information prompted bad currency projections by international money firms, a psychologist contends, and may have blinded them to the global financial crisis.
By Bruce Bower - Life
2012 medicine Nobel honors research on reprogramming adult cells
John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka share this year's prize.
- Humans
Human-Neandertal mating gets a new date
Late Stone Age interbreeding between Neandertals and people may have left a mark on Europeans’ DNA.
By Bruce Bower - Space
Superfast star spotted orbiting Milky Way’s black hole
Upcoming gravitational close encounter will test relativity theories in the extreme.
By Nadia Drake - Life
Duck-billed dino could slice and dice
Ancient animal’s teeth were made of six different tissue types.
By Erin Wayman - Life
Mouse stem cells yield viable eggs
Japanese scientists’ technical feat might provide new insights about protecting and extending human fertility.
- Life
Black mamba bite packs potent painkiller
Scientists find that a component of snake venom blocks pain-sensing nerve signals.
By Tanya Lewis - Animals
Right eye required for finding Mrs. Right
Finches flirt unwisely if they can only use their left eyes.
By Susan Milius - Chemistry
Chemical bond shields extreme microbes from poison
Molecular structure explains how ‘arsenic life’ bacteria instead survive by fishing out phosphate from their surroundings.
- Astronomy
Cohabiting black holes challenge theory
The observation of two stellar-mass objects in one globular cluster violates existing astrophysical dogma.
By Nadia Drake - Humans
Car-crazy kid wins middle school science competition
First place at Broadcom MASTERS goes to 14-year-old who studied automotive aerodynamics.