News
- Animals
Back off, extinct moa
A New Zealand tree’s peculiar leaves may have served as defenses against long-gone giant birds.
By Susan Milius - Life
Tasmanian devils have no star networkers
Tasmanian devils all know each other, a new study shows. The discovery could mean that stopping the spread of an infectious cancer will be harder than previously thought.
- Health & Medicine
Docs writing fewer scripts
The number of antibiotic prescriptions for respiratory infections has declined since the mid-1990s, a new study shows.
By Nathan Seppa - Astronomy
Comet dust harbors life’s building blocks
Samples collected from a comet’s halo suggest comets could have carried amino acids to the early Earth
- Health & Medicine
Better BBQ through chemistry
Food chemists reveal their secrets to juicier, tastier barbecue.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Using estrogen to combat persistent breast cancer
Estrogen therapy stymies breast cancer in some patients who have exhausted their other options, a new study finds.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Worm-inspired superglue
Researchers create a material that may one day be used to paste together bones in the body.
- Animals
Vocal abilities lost, found and drowned out
Reports from the meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union
By Susan Milius - Earth
Bubblin’ plume
Sonar survey spots previously unknown plume in the depths off California.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Rapid evolution may be reshaping forest birds’ wings
Logging during the last century might have driven birds in mature boreal forests toward pointier wings while reforestation in New England led to rounder wings.
By Susan Milius - Earth
Hazy changes on high
A big boost in coal burning, especially in China, is adding aerosols to the stratosphere.
By Sid Perkins - Tech
Isotope crisis threatens medical care
Global production of the feedstock for the leading medical-imaging isotope is low and erratic, putting health care in jeopardy.
By Janet Raloff