All Stories
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Sleepy brains take learning seriously
After people practice a hand-eye coordination task, electrical activity in specific areas of the brain during sleep reflects neural processes involved in learning to perform that task better.
- Physics
New pass at neutrino mass
The first experiment to create neutrinos in an accelerator and then beam them a long distance has found a long-awaited, new form of evidence that those fundamental particles weigh something.
- Earth
Cost of protecting the oceans
Operating an extensive global network of marine parks in which fishing and habitat-stressing activities are restricted would probably be more affordable for governments than continuing to subsidize struggling fisheries at current levels.
- Physics
Why the thinnest sticky hairs rule
The foot hairs of geckos and other creatures that can walk on ceilings may be microscopic because only such slender hairs offer optimal adhesion, regardless of shape.
- Chemistry
Connection blocker may stop viruses
Using compounds that disrupt the interface of two viral proteins might present a novel strategy for combating viruses, a study of herpes suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Fish toxin stops cancer pain
An experimental drug fashioned from the toxin of the puffer fish can suppress pain in cancer patients.
- Health & Medicine
New diabetes drug passes early tests
The drug exenatide stabilizes and can reduce blood sugar in diabetes patients.
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Beg Your Indulgence
The Japanese concept of amae, in which one person presumes that another will indulgently grant a special request, may apply to different forms of behavior at different ages, even in Western countries.
- Animals
Thoroughly Modern Migrants
Butterflies and moths are causing scientists to devise a broader definition of migration and this has raised some old questions in new ways.
- Paleontology
Calling all orthodontists. . .
Researchers have unearthed fossils of a theropod dinosaur whose front teeth grew almost directly forward, which sets it apart from all other related species.
- Paleontology
Allosaurus as a Jurassic headbanger
The skull of the carnivorous dinosaur Allosaurus fragilis can resist levels of stress much higher than those expected from chewing, which may provide insight into the animal's method of attacking its prey.
- Paleontology
The last ice age wasn’t totally icy
Radiocarbon dating of fossils taken from caves on islands along Alaska's southeastern coast suggest that at least a portion of the area remained ice-free during the last ice age.
