All Stories
- Humans
Clovis baby’s genome unveils Native American ancestry
DNA from skeleton shows all tribes come from a single population.
- Life
Charms of small males may collapse a Darwin’s finch species
Mating rules may be changing for one of the storied Galápagos birds.
- Astronomy
China’s lunar rover fails to connect with controllers (updated)
Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, could not be restored to full function, Chinese media report.
- Materials Science
Making it work, on paper and just maybe in practice
Last spring, Science News reported on the lack of progress by the main U.S. nuclear fusion effort. As the researchers still contend, laser-initiated fusion should work. It works on paper. But in practice, even a set of extremely powerful lasers failed to trigger the fusion of hydrogen nuclei and the concomitant chain reaction and release of net energy expected.
- Health & Medicine
Feedback
Calculating vaccines' impact, cat-induced bird death toll revised, taming wildcat genetics, and praise for The Science Life.
- Math
There’s something suspicious about using statistics to test statistics
The use of statistics to validate medical studies suffers from flaws of faulty assumptions.
- Health & Medicine
Your epigenetics can be a pain
A new study shows that your epigenome can play an important role in pain sensitivity, potentially offering a new target that could make development of a more effective painkiller less of a ... pain.
- Animals
The Ice Age was harsh on orcas
Killer whale DNA shows that climate change resulted in declines for most populations.
- Materials Science
Graphene-based material prevents blood clots
When researchers coated a plastic film with the new material, clotting was greatly reduced and continued even after three days.
- Chemistry
Carbon monoxide junked for making plastic
Using a catalyst, chemists can swap in the less dangerous carbon dioxide.
- Archaeology
Nearly 1-million-year-old European footprints found
Erosion temporarily unveils remnants of a Stone Age stroll along England’s coast.
- Earth
The Sixth Extinction
On only five occasions in Earth’s long history has a large fraction of the planet’s biodiversity disappeared in a geological instant. But, journalist Kolbert reminds us in her new book, we are well on our way to making it six.
