News
- Archaeology
Europe’s oldest stone hand axes emerge in Spain
Researchers report identifying Europe’s oldest stone hand axes at Spanish sites dating to 900,000 and 760,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Earth
Unusual advances
New glacier model helps explain how ice masses can grow even in a generally warming climate.
By Sid Perkins - Animals
Play that monkey music
Man-made music inspired by tamarin calls seems to alter the primates’ emotions, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Obesity surgery’s benefits extend to next generation
Children born to women who have undergone weight-loss surgery are healthier than children born to moms who are severely obese, a study shows.
By Nathan Seppa - Earth
Oh, rats — there go the snails
A food fad among introduced rats has apparently crashed a once-thriving population of Hawaii’s famed endemic tree snails.
By Susan Milius - Animals
Oops, missed that fossil iridescence
Nanostructures on a preserved feather offer the first fossil evidence of bird colors not from pigments, a new study says.
By Susan Milius - Earth
A trip to the garbage patch
Scientists bring back samples from the oceanic garbage patch off the coast of California.
- Humans
New genes give gut bacteria antibiotic resistance
Scientists find new genes for antibiotic resistance in common bacteria in the human gut.
- Life
Domesticated silkworms’ secrets
After mapping the genetic book of instructions for wild and domesticated silkworms, scientists identify changes associated with the taming of these caterpillars.
- Humans
Girls have head start on snake and spider fears
At 11 months of age, girls quickly learn to associate fearful faces with images of snakes and spiders, a new study suggests.
By Bruce Bower - Animals
Fruity whiff may inspire new mosquito repellents
Odors from ripening bananas can jam fruit flies’ and mosquitoes’ power to detect carbon dioxide, a new study finds.
By Susan Milius - Life
Mitochondrial DNA replacement successful in Rhesus monkeys
New procedure may halt some serious inherited diseases, a study suggests.