All Stories
- Planetary Science
Martian moon probably pretty porous
Phobos may be a mass of rocky rubble, not a captured asteroid.
- Space
Planets in nearby system are off-kilter, measurements show
New observations shatter the notion that other planetary systems have the same flattened, disclike arrangement of orbits that rings the sun.
- Animals
Fight or flee, it’s in the pee
Researchers get a better understanding of how mice smell a rat, or a cat, and maybe even a snake.
- Humans
2010 Intel ISEF showcases next-gen scientists
Top high school scientists from around the world compete for more than $4 million in prizes at weeklong competition.
- Chemistry
EPA issues greenhouse-gas rules for new factories and more
EPA released new rules on greenhouse-gas emissions for new power plants, factories and oil refineries — any big new facility, really that emits huge amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, or any of several other classes of chemicals. Existing facilities can continue to spew greenhouse gases at current levels.
- Earth
Lizards threatened by warming
Analysis suggests climate change could wipe out 20 percent of species, 39 percent of local populations.
- Earth
Earliest birds didn’t make a flap
The feathers of Archaeopteryx and Confuciusornis probably were not strong enough to support sustained flight.
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A dark debate
Physicists are embroiled in a verbal slugfest over a few measly WIMPs. WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles, are hypothetical subatomic particles that, if shown to exist, might account for some of the invisible dark matter that astronomers say makes up some 85 percent of the mass of the universe. Astronomers are eager to find […]
- Ecosystems
Spill update: From booms to dispersants
Choppy seas prevailed in the northern Gulf of Mexico on May 13, with even protected waters hostingrough 4 to 5 foot waves, according to the Coast Guard. But three-plus weeks into the Deepwater Horizon explosion and ensuing spill from a BP exploratory well, measures to respond to the catastrophe continued ramping up.
- Chemistry
Chinese would turn cigarette butts into steel’s guardian
People smoke a lot of cigarettes, which leads to a lot of trash. Tom Novotny has done the math: An estimated 5.6 trillion butts each year end up littering the global environment. But Chinese researchers have a solution: recycling. Their new data indicate that an aqueous extract of stinky butts makes a great corrosion inhibitor for steel.
- Humans
Grown men swap bodies with virtual girl
People who undergo virtual-reality perspective shifts feel like they’ve switched bodies with a virtual character.
- Life
Eureka, brain makes real mental leaps
Studies of rats reveal neuron activity changes en masse during aha moments.
