News
- Space
Saturn’s rings tell a comet’s tale
Ripples made by a celestial impact 600 years ago can still be seen today.
By Nadia Drake - Life
When snowpack shrinks, elk can binge on aspen
As winters warm in the Rockies, majestic grazers may be threatening iconic Western tree.
By Susan Milius - Life
Stem cell advance uses cloning
A method that uses eggs to do genetic reprogramming is successful in humans.
- Humans
Inca takeovers not usually hostile
Skeletal evidence suggests that war was not the answer for Inca imperialists.
By Bruce Bower - Life
Heart disease has its own clock
Disrupting circadian rhythms in mouse blood vessels hardens arteries, suggesting that timing malfunctions in organs may cause disease.
- Chemistry
Unusual crystal patterns win chemistry Nobel
First rejected as impossible, the discovery that atoms can pack in subtly varied patterns forced revisions of fundamental concepts.
- Humans
Surf zone study earns young scientist first place
Top winners selected from 30 finalists who traveled to Washington, D.C., to compete in the inaugural Broadcom MASTERS program for middle school students.
By Devin Powell - Space
Miniplanet sports megapeak
The solar system’s second tallest mountain hides out in a crater at the south pole of the asteroid Vesta.
By Nadia Drake - Life
Biomarker for Huntington’s disease identified
A gene called H2AFY may provide scientists with a way to measure the condition’s progression and whether a treatment is having a biological effect.
By Nick Bascom - Space
Cosmic acceleration discovery wins physics Nobel
Three astrophysicists are honored for revealing the universe's accelerating expansion.
By Devin Powell - Space
Antennas reveal Antennae
A giant radio telescope array in Chile’s Atacama Desert produces its first images.
- Earth
Arctic ozone loss in 2011 unprecedented
Report describes a ‘hole’ comparable to conditions observed over Antarctica during the mid-1980s.
By Janet Raloff