News
- Planetary Science
New angles on Mercury
The NASA MESSENGER spacecraft completed its second flyby of Mercury, yielding crisp new images of a large swath of the planet not seen before.
- Earth
World’s largest tsunami debris
Seven immense coral boulders — one of them a three-story-tall, 1,200-metric-ton monster — have been found far inland on a Tongan island and may be the world's largest tsunami debris.
- Physics
Nobel Prize in physics shared for work that unifies forces of nature
Understanding of broken symmetry has been crucial to the standard model of particle physics.
- Life
Tough times for mammals
Between a fifth and a third of the world’s mammal species face the threat of extinction.
- Humans
The long, wild ride of bipolar disorder
The first long-term study of its kind finds that bipolar disorder identified in children often persists into young adulthood and involves frequent, intense swings between manic euphoria and depression.
- Earth
When trees grew in Antarctica
Fossils of trees that grew in Antarctica millions of years ago suggest a growth pattern much different than modern trees.
- Earth
Earthquake history recorded in stalagmites
Where stalagmites start and stop in caves could offer more precise clues about when major earthquakes have hit (and could again hit) the Midwest.
- Health & Medicine
Nobel Prize in medicine given for HIV, HPV discoveries
Three Europeans recognized for linking viruses to AIDS, cervical cancer.
- Physics
Charging up fuel injection
A new device uses an electric field to increase cars’ gas mileage.
- Humans
Genetic link to dyslexia
Scientists studying a large group of British children find a link between a DNA sequence that contains a gene involved in brain development and a range of reading problems, including dyslexia.
- Space
No naked black holes
In a simulated merger, astrophysicists tried to push the boundaries of two black holes into shedding their event horizons. But the resulting black hole was still shrouded by its event horizon, through which even light can’t escape.
- Earth
A near-record Arctic melting
This summer, the area covered by Arctic sea ice dropped to its second-lowest since satellite measurements began in 1979.
