All Stories

  1. Animals

    Cicada Serenades

    One sound that characterizes American summers is the cicada chorus. The insects’ long, drawn out serenades can be loud and ethereal, reminiscent of some cross between the sounds of rustling and scraping. Half a world away, Borneo’s cicadas belt out very different melodies. Although some sound fairly familiar, one available at this German site is […]

    By Science News
  2. Health & Medicine

    Bad Bug: Microbe raises stomach cancer risk

    A gene in some strains of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori may greatly increase the risk of stomach cancer.

    By Nathan Seppa
  3. Astronomy

    Dawn of a Disk: Water vapor pours down on embryonic star

    Infrared observations show water vapor pouring down on a planet-forming disk around a young star.

    By Ron Cowen

  4. No-Fight Zones: School programs reduce violence in all grades

    A variety of school-based programs succeed in reducing students' violent and disruptive behavior.

    By Bruce Bower
  5. Earth

    Oxygen Rocks: Volcanoes spurred early atmospheric change

    Earth owes its oxygen-rich atmosphere to a change in volcanic activity about 2.5 billion years ago.

    By Carolyn Barry
  6. Plants

    Cretaceous Corsages? Fossil in amber suggests antiquity of orchids

    Orchids appeared on the scene about 80 million years ago, according to evidence from a bee that collected orchid pollen and got trapped in amber.

    By Sid Perkins

  7. Barely Alive: Ancient bacteria survive in the slow lane

    Microbes locked in 500,000-year-old permafrost appear to breathe and show other signs of very slow life.

    By Brian Vastag

  8. Share Alike: Genes from bacteria found in animals

    Bacteria swap genes all the time, but it now appears that they can give their DNA to some animals as well.

    By Patrick Barry
  9. Math

    Kidney Matchmaking

    A mathematical optimization strategy for pairing patients who need kidneys with willing donors could increase the number and quality of transplants.

    By Julie Rehmeyer
  10. Humans

    Letters from the September 1, 2007, issue of Science News

    Risk reversal? “Diabetes drug might hike heart risk” (SN: 6/23/07, p. 397) reports 86 heart attacks among 15,560 rosiglitazone (Avandia) users, versus 72 others in a control group of 12,283. A study coauthor then says that “after statistical adjustment, that yields a 43 percent higher risk of heart attacks among rosiglitazone users.” Simple arithmetic would […]

    By Science News
  11. Humans

    Urine tests for cities

    Analysis of sewage gauges community-wide use of illegal drugs.

    By Brian Vastag
  12. Earth

    Tiny tubes, big pollution

    Making carbon nanotubes also produces a lot of airborne carcinogens.

    By Brian Vastag