News
- Life
Ocean noise is a whale of a stressor
The post-9/11 quiet in Atlantic shipping lanes calmed the biggest marine mammals, hormone measurements suggest.
By Devin Powell - Life
How a stomach bug may ward off asthma
An ulcer- and cancer-causing bacterium may protect against the airway disease by influencing key players in inflammation.
- Chemistry
Taste of fructose revs up metabolism
The pancreas pumps more insulin in response to the sugar, potentially throwing the body’s energy-storage machinery out of whack.
- Animals
Chimps lend a hand
The finding suggests nonhuman primates recognize their peers’ intentions and desires.
By Bruce Bower - Earth
Little Ice Age began with a bang
Frozen moss suggests climate cooling kicked off fast, possibly with help from volcanic eruptions.
By Devin Powell - Space
Super-Earth spotted in life-friendly zone
The latest exoplanet entry creeps closer to long-sought goal of finding habitable worlds elsewhere.
By Nadia Drake - Health & Medicine
Addicts and siblings share brain features
The finding suggests that diminished self-control and other behaviors may have a genetic component.
- Earth
Some corals like it hot
Western Australian reefs are faring better than their eastern counterparts, at least for now.
By Devin Powell - Life
Plants swap chloroplasts via grafts
The energy-converting cellular organs can pass through connections, carrying genetic material with them.
By Susan Milius - Chemistry
Muscle massage may speed healing
Rubbing sore, overworked areas trips anti-inflammatory switches in the tissue that might speed healing and ease pain.
By Nathan Seppa - Earth
Big volcanoes wake up fast
Crystal chemistry suggests magma changes quickly before a huge eruption.
- Humans
Arsenic-based life finding fails follow-up
Tests see no evidence to confirm a bold 2010 claim that some microbes can incorporate the normally toxic element into their cellular machinery.