News
- Paleontology
An ammonite’s last supper
A detailed X-ray image of a fossil reveals an ancient marine creature’s diet.
- Life
Spider sex play has its pluses
In the tricky world of arachnid mating, messing around with not-quite-mature females yields later benefits.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Possible relief for irritable bowel
Those taking an antibiotic whose effects are localized to the intestines fared better than patients getting a placebo pill, two trials find.
By Nathan Seppa - Chemistry
Building big molecules bottom-up
Using templates, chemists make ring structures on the scale of biological machinery.
- Paleontology
Oceans may have poisoned early animals
High sulfur and low oxygen produced a deadly brew nearly 500 million years ago that apparently stalled a burst of evolutionary change.
- Health & Medicine
Second chicken pox shot boosts coverage
Giving a follow-up vaccination increases coverage to more than 98 percent of kids who receive it, a study finds.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
How the brain shops
Using implanted electrodes, researchers find individual neurons associated with attaching value to objects.
- Humans
How to hear above the cocktail party din
Simply repeating a sound in different acoustic environments may allow listeners to focus in on it, experiments suggest.
- Life
Robins reject red glowing grub
Parasitic worms induce a color change in their caterpillar victims that's literally repulsive to predators.
By Susan Milius - Life
Flower sharing may be unsafe for bees
Wild pollinators are catching domesticated honeybee viruses, possibly by touching the same pollen.
By Susan Milius - Humans
Babies may sense others’ worldviews earlier than thought
New study suggests 7-month-olds can recognize that other people's beliefs don't always match reality.
- Humans
Google a bedbug today
With no good technological solutions, entomologists call on the public to remain eternally vigilant against a resurgent foe.
By Susan Milius