The Science Life
- Paleontology
Early dinosaur relative sported odd mix of bird, crocodile-like traits
Teleocrater rhadinus gives researchers a better picture of what early dinosaur relatives looked like.
- Agriculture
Fleets of drones could pollinate future crops
Chemist Eijiro Miyako turned a lab failure into a way to rethink artificial pollination.
- Health & Medicine
Riding roller coasters might help dislodge kidney stones
Researchers took a 3-D printed kidney containing tiny stones and urine for a spin on a roller coaster and found their patients’ stories of kidney stones passing on the ride to have merit.
By Laura Beil - Genetics
To study Galápagos cormorants, a geneticist gets creative
To collect DNA from four cormorant species, this scientist called in bird scientists far and wide.
- Physics
Sounds from gunshots may help solve crimes
Sound wave analysis may help forensic scientists figure out what types of guns were fired at a crime scene.
By Meghan Rosen - Chemistry
Movie viewers’ exhaled chemicals tell if scene is funny, scary
Changes in trace gases exhaled by movie audiences could point the way to a subtle form of human communication.
- Science & Society
Biologist Kate Rubins’ big dream takes her to the space station
Molecular biologist Kate Rubins led a 14-person virology lab before becoming an astronaut. She heads to the International Space Station on June 24.
- Life
Studying cheese reveals how microbes interact
Microbiologist Rachel Dutton uses cheese rinds to study how microbes form communities.
- Genetics
Prion disease gets personal
Diagnosis of a brain-wasting disease drove a married couple into science.
- Planetary Science
120 seconds in Pluto’s shadow
A 747 outfitted with a telescope worked with New Horizons to reveal details about Pluto’s atmosphere.
- Animals
The fine art of hunting microsnails
Flotation, tact and limestone all prove vital to the quest for microsnails.
By Susan Milius - Physics
Uncovering the science of sand dune ‘booms’
Mechanical engineer and geophysicist Nathalie Vriend explores noises in the desert that are triggered by sand sliding down dunes.
By Andrew Grant