All Stories
-
- Life
Pigeon navigation finding called off-course
Iron-containing cells that had been reported in beaks look mostly like immune system components, a new study finds.
- Earth
Indonesian quake passes without major tsunami
A magnitude 8.6 tremor displaced far less water than the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster.
- Space
Tall, devilish storm skids across Mars’ surface
Probe captures 20-kilometer dust devil in action.
- Health & Medicine
Why emotions are attention-getters
Strong, direct connections between two key brain centers help explain how feelings can usurp focus.
- Humans
Warming Marches in
People may argue about why Earth is warming, how long its fever will last and whether any of this warrants immediate corrective action. But whether Earth is warming is no longer open to debate. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has just published domestic examples to reinforce what Americans witnessed last month — either on TV or in their own backyards.
- Life
Bat-killing fungus is a European import
Tracing the origins of the strain that causes white-nose syndrome in U.S. animals to Europe, scientists show that infection ups arousal rate during hibernation, depleting energy stores.
- Humans
Bat killer is still spreading
Since 2006, some 6 million to 7 million North American bats have succumbed to white-nose syndrome, a virulent fungal disease. That figure, issued in January by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, at least sextupled the former estimate that biologists had been touting. But the sharp jump in the cumulative death toll isn’t the only disturbing new development. On April 2, scientists confirmed that white-nose fungus has apparently struck bats hibernating in two small Missouri caves. The first signs of clinical disease have also just emerged in Europe.
- Earth
Stop-and-go plate tectonics
Early on, ancient crustal plates may have dived deep into the Earth, time and again, giving a halting start to the planetary remodeling process.
- Health & Medicine
Autism linked to obesity in pregnancy
Association may spark research into a possible biological mechanism.
-
- Space
Planets’ gravity tidies stellar ring
The vast dust disk around the star Fomalhaut hints at a pair of orbiting bodies.
