All Stories
- Life
Penguin’s flight from Antarctica clocked
A climate shift millions of years ago may have forced the birds’ ancestors to flee to warmer digs.
- Animals
Sea slug mating features a stab in the head
Newly discovered hermaphroditic sea slug deploys specialized needle-thin organ for injections near the eyes.
- Microbes
Surprising metals found in microbes
Scientists discover the first case of an organism needing a rare earth element for survival.
- Animals
Deer and other animals can survive being impaled
Whether they are hunting shots gone wrong or something more sinister, stories of animals surviving such misfortunes are not uncommon.
- Neuroscience
Mold chemical linked to movement disorder
Fruit flies’ brains and human cells show Parkinson’s-like changes when exposed to fungi toxin.
- Microbes
Microbes help hyenas send status updates
Bacteria in the animals’ waste give off fumes that let passersby know who has been there before.
- Climate
Storms are becoming more intense, moving toward poles
Researchers find that altered rainfall patterns have the fingerprints of human-caused climate change.
- Planetary Science
Uninhabitable Earth
A recent estimate of the lifetimes of the habitability zones of Earth and various exoplanets suggests Earth could become unable to support life as soon as 1.75 billion years from now, when the sun brightens before dying out.
- Genetics
Genetic difference in blood clotting may underlie racial health disparity
Finding could help explain difference between blacks and whites in heart attack survival.
- Climate
Historical events linked to changes in Earth’s temperature
Ozone treaty, wars and Great Depression influenced global warming rate, scientists find.
- Paleontology
Oldest bug bonk
Preserved as fossils, two insects remain caught in the act 165 million years later.
- Microbes
Gut bacteria can drive colon cancer development
Gut microbes may reveal who is at risk for colon cancer, a study in mice suggests.
