All Stories
- Animals
Don’t mount so fast! That bug could be a boy
Many insect males show same-sex mating behavior. What’s the cause? What’s the benefit? Is it real? Or are the bugs just in too much of a rush to stop?
- Health & Medicine
Gene links smoking, multiple sclerosis
Smokers with genetic variant face tripled risk of MS.
- Astronomy
Solar system with seven planets discovered
Kepler data has identified a star with a seven-planet system structured similarly to the sun’s clutch of planets.
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- Physics
Material looks cool while heating up
Substance that tricks infrared camera could pave the way for new types of camouflage and heating technology.
- Astronomy
Oort cloud tosses astronomers a cometary curveball
In late November, ISON will deliver debris from the dawn of the solar system to Earth’s doorstep.
- Chemistry
Oxygen shapes growth of graphene
The number of atoms on a copper surface changes the size and rate of the material's crystal development.
- Health & Medicine
New definition of ‘full term’ narrows on-time arrival window
Until now, babies born at any time during a wide five-week window were considered fully cooked. Now, a panel of clinicians says otherwise.
- Physics
Top 10 scientific supers
From supersonic to supernova, superego and supersymmetry, a roundup of science’s super superlatives.
- Chemistry
Water squishes into stable shapes, no container required
Nanoparticles lock together to hold water in place for more than a month.
- Life
Scorpion venom kills pain in mice
Toxin works with nerve proteins to block distress signals’ journey to brain.
- Physics
Four atoms make a material
A new experiment gives physicists clues about when to describe atoms as individuals and when to describe them as acting as a group.
