News
- Earth
Warming dents corn and wheat yields
Rising temperatures have decreased global grain production and may be partly responsible for food price increases.
- Life
Giant ants once roamed Wyoming
The first complete fossil found in North America suggests warm spells in the far north allowed big insects to spread.
By Susan Milius - Space
Gravity Probe B finally pays off
A half century in the making, an orbiting experiment finally confirms Einstein's general relativity.
By Devin Powell - Space
Signs of dark matter from Minnesota mine
An underground experiment in the U.S. bolsters the case that Earth plows through a halo of dark matter particles.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Blame brain cells for lack of focus
Denser tissue in a particular brain region may result in higher distractibility, a new study finds.
- Health & Medicine
Coronary bypass rates drop
Heart patients have been less likely to undergo the surgery since 2001, with many getting a less invasive procedure.
By Nathan Seppa - Life
Sickle-cell may blunt, not stop, malaria
Once thought to keep parasite out of cells, the trait appears to diminish the severity of infection.
- Humans
No nuts for you, Nutcracker Man
Tooth analysis shows huge-jawed hominid grazed on grasses and sedges.
By Bruce Bower - Earth
Grand Canyon born by continental lift
A "drip" deep within the Earth may have raised the Colorado plateau to create the spectacular landscape of the U.S. Southwest.
- Earth
With warming, Arctic is losing ground
Scientists anticipate big ecosystem changes as erosion spills nutrients into the sea
By Janet Raloff - Space
Former planet may have grown a tail
Pluto appears to trail a cometlike cloud of gas.
By Ron Cowen - Life
Zap! More fish
An upgraded brain underlies the wide diversity in a family of electric fish, scientists say.