News

Earth

Small volcanoes add up to cooler climate

Airborne particles sent skyward by eruptions since 2000 have counteracted the warming effects of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Life

A tryst, then the power to resist

House mice in Europe got some of their tolerance for rodenticides from hybridizing with a completely different species

Life

The lion eats tonight …

Attacks on humans peak after a full moon, when feline bellies tend to rumble.

Health & Medicine

Something in the air may cause lung damage in troops

Unexplained breathing problems in soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan come from deposits that damage tiny passages in the lungs.

Life

Shuffling the genetic deck

Scientists map places where chromosomes mix and match genes.

Physics

Quantum theory gets physical

New work finds a physical basis for quantum mechanics.

Space

Dawn on Vesta

New image from NASA asteroid mission reveals a relic of the early solar system.

Humans

Mirror system gets an assist

Study finds two brain systems are surprisingly active when an amputee observes a task she can’t perform.

Psychology

Narcissists need no reality check

Masters of vanity know they’re arrogant and disliked, but see own bigheadedness as justified.

Physics

A cloak in time

Physicists hide events in the laboratory for trillionths of a second.

Animals

Baboon bosses get stressed for success

In the wild, the most powerful males reign tensely.

Math

Varying efficacy of HIV drug cocktails explained

Steepness of slope in dose-response curve tips off researchers to importance of timing in virus’s life cycle.