All Stories by Ashley Yeager
- Life
Bacteria’s bodies do whirlies to help them swim
Kidney-shaped Caulobacter crescentus bacteria swim with both their corkscrew propellers called flagella and their bodies, scientists say.
- Microbes
Gut microbes help packrats eat poison
Antiobiotics and fecal transplants in desert woodrats shown that gut microbes can help plant-eaters metabolize toxins.
- Health & Medicine
Pig heartbeats adjusted with gene therapy
A biological pacemaker created with gene therapy could may one day help people who cannot have implanted electrical pacemakers.
- Planetary Science
Rosetta spacecraft sees possible ‘double’ comet
The comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko may actually be two objects stitched together.
- Paleontology
Dinos’ long tail feathers may have stopped crash landings
C. yangi's long tail feathers may have helped it control its flight speed as it tried to land.
- Chemistry
Boron atoms take on buckyball shape
The first boron buckyball-like molecule could be used for storing hydrogen, scientists suggest.
- Planetary Science
Titan’s origins linked to Oort cloud
The building blocks of Titan may have formed in the early solar system, not from a warm disk around Saturn when the planet was young.
- Animals
Emperor penguin population could decline by 2100
Emperor penguins’ reign over Antarctic sea ice could be in decline by the beginning of the 22nd century.
- Chemistry
Safe salt could yield cheaper, more efficient solar cells
Magnesium chloride could be the key ingredient for concocting efficient solar cells with cadmium telluride.
- Physics
Tiny silica spheres put the disco in disco clams
The electric effect in disco clams is actually the result of light scattering off tiny silica spheres.
- Life
Bacteria’s tail spins make water droplets swirl
When bacteria band together, they can turn a fairly tame drop of water into a swirling vortex.
- Earth
Wavy jet stream linked with extreme weather
Extreme weather events have been linked with big waves in the jet stream.
