All Stories
- Neuroscience
Why traumatic brain injuries raise the risk of a second, worse hit
Recent hits to Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa have reignited discussions of brain safety for professional football players. Brain experts weigh in.
- Animals
Tree-climbing carnivores called fishers are back in Washington’s forests
Thanks to a 14-year reintroduction effort, fishers, or “tree wolverines,” are once again climbing and hunting in Washington’s forests after fur trapping and habitat loss wiped them out.
- Planetary Science
Mars’ buried ‘lake’ might just be layers of ice and rock
Evidence grows that possible detections of liquid water buried near Mars’ south pole might not hold water.
- Life
A metal ion bath may make fibers stronger than spider silk
The work is the latest in a decades-long quest to create artificial fibers as strong, lightweight and biodegradable as spider silk.
By Meghan Rosen - Microbes
How dormant bacteria spores sense when it’s time to come back to life
Bacterial cells shut down and become spores to survive harsh environments. An internal countdown signals when it’s safe for bacteria to revive.
- Humans
Here’s where jazz gets its swing
Swing, the feeling of a rhythm in jazz music that compels feet to tap, may arise from near-imperceptible delays in musicians’ timing, a study shows.
By Nikk Ogasa - Health & Medicine
Losing amphibians may be tied to spikes in human malaria cases
Missing frogs, toads and salamanders may have led to more mosquitoes and potentially more malaria transmission, a study in Panama and Costa Rica finds.
- Paleontology
Pterosaurs may have evolved from tiny, fast-running reptiles
A mysterious little ground-dwelling reptile unearthed in a Scottish sandstone over 100 years ago turns out to be part of a famous flying family.
- Chemistry
A way to snap molecules together like Lego wins 2022 chemistry Nobel
Click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry allow scientists to build complex molecules in the lab and in living cells.
By Meghan Rosen and Nikk Ogasa - Health & Medicine
‘Breathless’ explores COVID-19’s origins and other pandemic science
In his new book, David Quammen examines what we’ve learned about SARS-CoV-2 and puts the pandemic in the context of previous coronavirus scares.
- Physics
Quantum experiments with entangled photons win the 2022 Nobel Prize in physics
Three pioneers in quantum information science share this year’s Nobel Prize in physics.
- Animals
Video captures young mosquitoes launching their heads to eat other mosquitoes
New high-speed filming gives a first glimpse of mosquito hunting too fast for humans to see.
By Susan Milius