News
- Life
Missing chemicals on Titan could signal life
Methane-based organisms on one of Saturn’s moons might be consuming the materials.
By Ron Cowen - Earth
Possible snake shortage looms
Declines among species in Europe and Africa raise herpetologists’ worries of widespread population losses.
By Susan Milius - Climate
With warming, some commercial fish may boom and bust
Higher temps in Arctic waters might be good for some species but not for others, new research suggests.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
In youth hockey, more contact means more injuries
Concussions are three times more common among 11- to 12-year-olds in leagues that permit checking, a Canadian study finds.
By Nathan Seppa - Humans
Secondhand smoke linked to mental distress
A Scottish survey finds a link between exposure to cigarette smoke and serious emotional problems.
By Bruce Bower - Planetary Science
Before the Mississippi, minerals show ancient rivers flowed west
Michigan zircons uncover the path of an ancient river system across North America.
By Sid Perkins - Life
Marine creature cooks up chemical defense from food
The sea hare transforms a benign algal pigment into a noxious molecule to help ward off crabs and other predators, new studies show.
- Physics
A giant proposal for a new type of molecule
Atoms linked across vast distances, can point in two directions at once
- Space
Jupiter takes yet another hit
For the third time in 16 years, astronomers have documented a collision between Jupiter and a nearby body.
By Ron Cowen - Animals
Sex, crickets and videotape
Security cameras focused on insects in the wild are looking at whether lab science has gotten the singing, mating and fighting right.
By Susan Milius - Humans
2010 Kavli Prizes awarded
The 2010 Kavli laureates in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience are named for work on powerful telescopes, neuron chatter molecules, building structures with DNA and a method for moving individual atoms.
- Health & Medicine
New angle on treating sepsis
An enzyme that plays a role in the lethal inflammatory disorder may be a suitable drug target, early tests show.
By Nathan Seppa