All Stories
-
Health & MedicineAverting Medical Mistakes
Work-hour reforms are needed to protect both the youngest, most-inexperienced doctors and the hospital patients they're charged with treating.
By Janet Raloff -
SpaceBlast from the past poses puzzle
New observations suggest that the brilliant outburst of a hefty star that first wowed observers in the 1840s could be signs of a new, exotic type of stellar explosion.
By Ron Cowen -
SpaceBrightest gamma-ray burst
A bit of luck helps astronomers detect the most luminous object ever recorded from Earth.
By Ron Cowen -
Health & MedicineGood day care grime
A study of 952 children in Manchester, England, suggests that children going to day care starting at age 6 months could be less likely to develop asthma later.
-
LifeGiant honeybees do the wave
Giant bees coordinate and make waves that would rival those in any football stadium. Predators of the bees don’t find it cheering.
By Susan Milius -
LifeFemale frogs play the field
A female frog insures a safe home for her young by mating with many males.
-
TechCops Might Get Pollution Sniffers
One day soon, precise up-to-minute air pollution data might be available at a street-by-street level.
By Janet Raloff -
NeuroscienceHighly wired
Men’s brain tissue shows higher density of neuron connections than similar tissue from women.
-
AgricultureNetwork Antennas — Yum!
Sensor designers might have to consider engineering in bovine deterrence.
By Janet Raloff -
HumansInborn path to math
A new study links math achievement with individual differences in the ability to rapidly estimate quantities.
By Bruce Bower -
SpaceRosetta finds a rocky jewel
On September 5, the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission became the first spacecraft to take a close-up portrait of a rare type of asteroid that lies in the main belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
By Ron Cowen -
LifeBirds duet to fight and seek
The first study to track birds in the forest via microphone arrays shows that birds double up on fight songs, or play Marco Polo in tropical shrubbery.
By Susan Milius