News
- Space
Today’s weather: thunder and antimatter beams
Positrons appear to be common in terrestrial lightning storms.
- Space
New planet small but tough
Astronomers have confirmed a rocky planet outside the solar system for the first time.
- Humans
Ancient farmers swiftly spread westward
A sudden influx of Neolithic farmers in southern Europe led to agricultural practices still in play today.
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- Life
Aspens bust, diseased mice boom
As trees decline, populations of rodents that carry the deadly sin nombre virus are on the rise.
- 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.
- Psychology
Lonely teardrops
Women’s tears appear to contain an odorless substance that, when sniffed, lowers men’s sexual arousal.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Chemistry
Building big molecules bottom-up
Using templates, chemists make ring structures on the scale of biological machinery.
