All Stories
- Microbes
Bacteria turn threatening in tests with immune cells
In less than 30 days, nonthreatening E. coli can transform into dangerous microbes in mice.
- Earth
Green lightning may be caused by positive charges, or by camera lens
Physicist offers possible explanations for stunning photograph of volcanic eruption.
- Animals
Bedbugs survive cold, but not for too long
Some studies have indicated that cold might kill bedbugs after as little as one hour of exposure. But new research finds that’s not the case.
- Neuroscience
Concussion-free head blows may still affect brain
Some college athletes who played contact sports had more changes in their brain’s white matter than varsity competitors in less violent games.
- Life
Animal origins shift to comb jellies
Genetic data confirm the marine predators have more ancient origin than simpler sponges.
- Paleontology
Fleshy comb is first found on a dinosaur
A fossil head has both a duck bill and a soft-tissue crest, scientists suggest.
- Planetary Science
Europa vents water, Hubble data suggest
Plumes from ice-covered oceans would increase likelihood of life-friendly conditions on one moon of Jupiter.
- Environment
World’s worst polluted
A new report by Green Cross Switzerland and the Blacksmith Institute lists places posing the greatest risk to human health.
- Health & Medicine
For babies, walking opens a whole new world
Walking and talking are linked as babies develop, anecdote and data show.
- Climate
Coldest place moves from one Antarctic site to another
New record low measured by satellite.
- Cosmology
Cosmic inflation has its flaws, but so do its critics
Philosophical predispositions color efforts to debunk a popular theory about the evolution of the universe.
- Health & Medicine
Staph bacteria linger deep in our noses
The nasal cavity has hidden crevices where the disease-causing bacteria like to hang out.
