News
- Health & Medicine
When good cholesterol is even better
It's quality, not just quantity, of high-density lipoprotein that counts in heart disease, study suggests.
- Life
Songbird’s testosterone surges at sight of thistle blooms
Seeing the right flowers in summer temperatures triggers male goldfinches’ reproductive readiness.
By Susan Milius - Space
Planck telescope finds cold, weird wonders
Survey's first results reveal the largest galaxy clusters and most frigid objects found in universe so far.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Shingles vaccine linked to lower disease risk
People 60 and over who get the shot are 55 percent less likely to develop the ailment, a large survey shows.
By Nathan Seppa - Space
Today’s weather: thunder and antimatter beams
Positrons appear to be common in terrestrial lightning storms.
By Ron Cowen - Space
New planet small but tough
Astronomers have confirmed a rocky planet outside the solar system for the first time.
By Ron Cowen - Humans
Ancient farmers swiftly spread westward
A sudden influx of Neolithic farmers in southern Europe led to agricultural practices still in play today.
By Bruce Bower -
- Life
Aspens bust, diseased mice boom
As trees decline, populations of rodents that carry the deadly sin nombre virus are on the rise.
By Susan Milius - Science & Society
Methane from BP spill goes missing
Latest sampling suggests either that microbes have already devoured the most abundant hydrocarbon produced by the leak — or that researchers have simply lost track of it.
By Janet Raloff - Psychology
Lonely teardrops
Women’s tears appear to contain an odorless substance that, when sniffed, lowers men’s sexual arousal.
By Bruce Bower - Space
Superhot solar mystery may be solved
Jets of hot gas heat the sun’s nebulous outer atmosphere to millions of degrees, well above the temperature on the surface, a new study suggests.
By Ron Cowen