News
- Space
Twinkle, twinkle, little dot
A faint object was once thought to be the first extrasolar planet to be photographed. Then it wasn’t. But now it may go down in the history books after all.
- Tech
The people’s pulsar
Thousands of volunteers help discover a neutron star by donating the processing power in their idle home computers.
- Life
New titi monkey, at last
Travel risks in parts of Colombia had kept primatologists out for decades.
- Health & Medicine
Delivering a knockout
Scientists have finally succeeded in genetically engineering rats.
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Haiti quake reveals previously unknown fault
Scientists say the risk of future temblors in region is unclear.
- Life
How salmonella helps kill cancer cells
A bacterial foe gives the immune system a boost to seek and destroy melanoma. The findings may point to a vaccine for melanoma and other malignancies.
- Archaeology
Lucy’s kind used stone tools to butcher animals
Animal bones found in East Africa show the oldest signs of stone-tool use and meat eating by hominids.
- Chemistry
Superconductors go fractal
Oxygen atoms arrange themselves in a self-similar pattern to help conduct electricity without resistance.
- Life
Orangutans can mime their desires
Animals’ ability to act out what they want suggests an understanding of others’ perspectives, researchers say.
- Health & Medicine
Spindles foster sound slumber
In “a very clever study,” researchers show that distinctive brain signals help sustain sleep in noisy environments.
- Earth
Forest loss slows in Brazilian Amazon
Between 2004 and 2009, the rate of clearing dropped almost 75 percent.
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