News
- Physics
Water not so squishy under pressure
In planets' cores, molecules may not compress tightly.
By Nadia Drake - Humans
Technique may reveal where it all began
A new strategy overcomes a distance quandary as it tracks the origins of widespread phenomena — from an E. coli outbreak to a fad.
- Humans
Modern era brings death to words
An analysis of books published over two centuries shows how words are born or succumb to shifting social and technological influences.
- Life
After a breakup, coral embryos live on as clones
Even modest waves can break apart embryonic corals, but the bits that survive can grow into separate clones.
By Susan Milius - Psychology
Kids flex cultural muscles
Young children, but not chimps or monkeys, generate collective leaps of knowledge.
By Bruce Bower -
- Earth
Fault’s twists may shake up earthquake forecasts
Deep angles along the southern San Andreas mean future temblors may be stronger than predicted.
By Devin Powell -
- Space
Aura of life captured in Earthshine
Light from Earth reflected off the moon contains the kind of information that could prove useful in the characterization of faraway exoplanets.
By Nadia Drake - Life
Pollutants long gone, but disease carries on
Even without new exposures, various chemicals can impact DNA and cause illness across at least three subsequent generations, rat study finds.
By Janet Raloff - Anthropology
Frozen mummy’s genetic blueprints unveiled
DNA study reveals the 5,300-year-old Iceman had brown eyes, Lyme disease and links to modern-day Corsicans and Sardinians.
- Life
Sardine fishery may be in peril
Cool ocean cycle, population slide evoke collapse of Pacific resource in the late 1940s.
By Susan Milius