News

  1. Health & Medicine

    Cancer and college

    Highly educated people have reaped the benefits of cancer prevention and treatment. Death rates in this group have fallen, but people with less education have missed out on these gains.

    By Nathan Seppa
  2. Anthropology

    Loud and clear

    Skulls of Neandertal ancestors show the prehistoric humans had a hearing capacity similar to present-day people, suggesting human speech could have originated much earlier than previously thought.

    By Tia Ghose
  3. Health & Medicine

    Shared recipes for longer life

    Being female and eating a calorie-restricted diet contribute to long lifespan in animals, and the two traits may share molecular mechanisms.

    By Patrick Barry
  4. Life

    Seeing without eyes

    Scientists are looking into the cellular pathways that allow an eyeless roundworm to see.

    By Rachel Ehrenberg
  5. Math

    Strategy to stop a pandemic

    A limited supply of vaccine shots, if targeted well, could stop the spread of disease.

    By Davide Castelvecchi
  6. Psychology

    Lie defectives

    A new analysis challenges the view that a few people with special experience can detect others’ lies with great accuracy.

    By Bruce Bower
  7. Agriculture

    Farm life turns male toads female

    A detailed inventory of toads in Florida finds that, as land becomes more agricultural, more cane toads resemble females both inside and out.

    By Janet Raloff
  8. Health & Medicine

    SIDS and serotonin

    Study finds brain chemical deficiency causing sudden death in mice could be linked to SIDS

    By Ashley Yeager
  9. Space

    Messages from Mercury

    Data collected by the MESSENGER spacecraft as it flew past Mercury last January has revealed the origin of the planet’s magnetic field, discovered evidence of early volcanic activity and provided a first look at the planet’s surface composition.

    By Ron Cowen
  10. Life

    Fountain of Youth, with caveats

    A chemical in red wine thought to mimic the life-extending properties of calorie restriction improves health, but doesn’t necessarily lengthen life; it could also harm the brain.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  11. Life

    Embryos can learn visually

    For cuttlefish embryos, what they see is what they'll crave as food later

    By Susan Milius
  12. Chemistry

    HIV knockout

    Cutting a gene in immune cells could offer a new way to treat HIV infections.

    By Patrick Barry