News

  1. Health & Medicine

    Monkey brains sensitive to others’ flubs

    Some of the brain’s nerve cells are programmed to light up only upon witnessing another’s error.

    By Laura Sanders
  2. Planetary Science

    Curiosity lands safely on Mars

    Lowered by sky crane onto the surface, NASA rover prepares to look for signs that life could have evolved on the Red Planet.

    By Nadia Drake
  3. Earth

    Extreme hot spells rising

    Analyzing six decades of temperature records reveals inexorable warming and increasing episodes of extreme heat.

    By Janet Raloff
  4. Earth

    Greenland enters melt mode

    This year’s record-breaking island-wide thaw punctuates an ongoing warming trend.

    By Alexandra Witze
  5. Life

    How the elephant gets its infrasound

    Just blowing air through a pachyderm’s larynx produces fundamental elements of the mysterious rumblings that send messages too low for people to hear.

    By Susan Milius
  6. Life

    Rabies resistance arises in backwater thick with vampire bats

    Residents of two remote Peruvian communities appear to have survived infection by the deadly virus.

    By Rachel Ehrenberg
  7. Astronomy

    Curiosity to look for habitable environs

    Set to land on Mars August 5, NASA mission will search for signs that the planet could support life, now or long ago.

    By Nadia Drake
  8. Life

    Select cells appear to spawn tumors

    Separate studies support the theory that stem cells cause cancers to emerge and recur.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  9. Health & Medicine

    Alzheimer’s protein could help in MS

    A-beta, the same molecule that has been tied to dementia when it accumulates in the brain, appears to reduce damage when introduced to the bodies of mice with symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

    By Laura Sanders
  10. Humans

    DNA hints at African cousin to humans

    Complete genetic profiles of people from three hunter-gatherer groups suggest Homo sapiens interbred with a now-extinct species on the continent relatively recently.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  11. Planetary Science

    Curiosity readies for dramatic entrance

    NASA’s new Mars rover aims to alight on the Red Planet like a pop star being lowered onto stage.

    By Nadia Drake
  12. Anthropology

    Sticks, stones and bones reveal emergence of a hunter-gatherer culture

    A cave in southern Africa was occupied by people very much like those living in the region today.

    By Meghan Rosen