News
- Earth
Where humans go, pepper virus follows
Plant pathogen could help track waters polluted with human waste.
- Earth
Deep hole spotted on moon
The feature may be a ‘skylight’ in an underground lava tube.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Malaria shows signs of resisting best drug used to fight it
The frontline malaria medicine artemisinin shows gaps in effectiveness in Southeast Asia.
By Nathan Seppa - Animals
Classic view of leaf-cutter ants overlooked nitrogen-fixing partner
A fresh look at a fungus-insect partnership that biologists have studied for more than a century uncovers a role for bacteria.
By Susan Milius - Life
Corn genome a maze of unusual diversity
Multiple teams announce complete draft of the maize genome, with a full plate of surprises that include hints about hybrid vigor.
- Humans
Obese people can misjudge body size
Survey finds that many overweight individuals consider their body size normal and healthy despite having health problems
By Laura Beil - Life
Climate not really what doomed large North American mammals
Prevalence of a dung fungus over time suggests megafauna extinctions at end of last ice age started before vegetation changed.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Marathoners’ hearts stressed, but not necessarily by heart attacks
Detailed imaging of runners’ hearts before and after races doesn’t find signatures of heart attacks
By Laura Beil - Space
Sun may not be a ‘Goldilocks’ star
The stars that are just right to support life-bearing planets might be dimmer and longer-lived than the sun.
- Space
Revving up particles in the cosmos
Newly recorded gamma rays from a microquasar may reveal how the black holes or neutron stars powering them can accelerate particles to enormous energies.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Mummies reveal heart disease plagued ancient Egyptians
CT scans of preserved individuals show hardening of arteries similar to that seen in people today.
By Laura Beil - Life
Killer bees aren’t so smart
Brains are probably not what powers the invasive bee’s takeover from European honeybees
By Susan Milius