All Stories
- Life
Stem cell advance uses cloning
A method that uses eggs to do genetic reprogramming is successful in humans.
- Humans
Inca takeovers not usually hostile
Skeletal evidence suggests that war was not the answer for Inca imperialists.
- Humans
Study recalibrates trees’ carbon uptake
Photosynthesis appears to be somewhat speedier than conventional wisdom had suggested, a new study finds. If true, this suggests computer projections are at risk of overestimating the potential for trees to sop up carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas.
- Life
Heart disease has its own clock
Disrupting circadian rhythms in mouse blood vessels hardens arteries, suggesting that timing malfunctions in organs may cause disease.
- Chemistry
Unusual crystal patterns win chemistry Nobel
First rejected as impossible, the discovery that atoms can pack in subtly varied patterns forced revisions of fundamental concepts.
- Humans
Surf zone study earns young scientist first place
Top winners selected from 30 finalists who traveled to Washington, D.C., to compete in the inaugural Broadcom MASTERS program for middle school students.
- Humans
Arctic ozone: ‘Hole’ or just not whole?
This past spring, the Arctic stratosphere’s ozone layer suffered unprecedented depletion. But whether the record loss constituted a “hole” depends on which experts you consult.
- Space
Miniplanet sports megapeak
The solar system’s second tallest mountain hides out in a crater at the south pole of the asteroid Vesta.
- Life
Biomarker for Huntington’s disease identified
A gene called H2AFY may provide scientists with a way to measure the condition’s progression and whether a treatment is having a biological effect.
- Space
Cosmic acceleration discovery wins physics Nobel
Three astrophysicists are honored for revealing the universe's accelerating expansion.
- Space
Antennas reveal Antennae
A giant radio telescope array in Chile’s Atacama Desert produces its first images.
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Turning numbers into shapes offers potential medical benefits
Until recently, topology was seen as being among the most abstract fields of mathematics, one that bore out Henry John Stephen Smith’s 19th century toast: “Pure mathematics — may it never be of use to anyone!” But now the field, which deals with the shape of many-dimensional objects, has unexpectedly proved its usefulness in, of all places, […]
