All Stories
- Physics
Centuries on, Newton’s gravitational constant still can’t be pinned down
A new experiment could finally answer the question 'What is the strength of gravity?' But it's a hard test to do.
- Climate
What’s causing this summer’s extreme heat waves?
Climate change and meandering jet streams are fomenting this summer’s extreme waves of heat.
- Planetary Science
Granite likely lurks beneath the moon’s surface
Without plate tectonics or water, granite is hard to make. But a 50-kilometer-wide hunk sits beneath the moon’s surface, lunar orbiter data suggest.
- Health & Medicine
‘Milking’ umbilical cords may help some sickly newborns
Taking a few seconds to push umbilical cord blood into a baby’s belly could provide extra essential nutrients. But questions about the practice remain.
- Planetary Science
A rain of electrons causes Mercury’s X-ray auroras
The first direct measurement of electrons raining down on Mercury suggests this particle precipitation causes most auroras in the solar system.
- Health & Medicine
Iron deficiency goes unnoticed in too many U.S. female adolescents
Low iron causes problems from dizziness to severe anemia. It’s time to reevaluate screening guidelines to catch the problem earlier, an expert argues.
- Chemistry
How Benjamin Franklin fought money counterfeiters
Researchers are confirming some of the techniques that Benjamin Franklin and his associates used to help early American paper currency succeed.
- Health & Medicine
New Alzheimer’s drugs are coming. Here’s what you need to know
Several new drugs that target brain plaques slow mental decline in people with Alzheimer’s disease. But they are not for everyone, researchers caution.
- Animals
In a ‘perfect comeback,’ some birds use antibird spikes to build their nests
The spikes were meant to keep birds away. But five corvid nests in Europe use the bird-deterrents as structural support and to ward off predators.
- Health & Medicine
A new device can detect the coronavirus in the air in minutes
The detector can sense as a few as seven to 35 coronavirus particles per liter of air — about as sensitive as a PCR test but much quicker.
- Astronomy
Ryugu asteroid samples are sprinkled with stardust older than the solar system
Slivers of the asteroid appear to be from the fringes of the solar system and could reveal bits of the history of the sun and its planets.
- Neuroscience
Elyse G.’s brain is fabulous. It’s also missing a big chunk
A new project explores interesting brains to better understand neural flexibility.
