All Stories

  1. Physics

    Quantum link connects light, ions

    By proving experimentally for the first time that an atom and a photon can become entwined in a quantum embrace called entanglement, physicists took a step toward teleporting quantum characteristics from one atom to another.

    By
  2. Health & Medicine

    Bug bites suggest new stroke drug

    Changing a human enzyme so that it resembles one from blood-sucking insects may lead to a new treatment for strokes.

    By
  3. Astronomy

    Andromeda’s building blocks

    A radio telescope has made the first conclusive observations of gas clouds that could be the leftover building blocks of the Andromeda galaxy, the Milky Way’s closest large spiral neighbor.

    By
  4. Fish guts reveal microbial alliance

    Scientists are studying germfree zebra fish to better understand how microbes influence gut development.

    By
  5. Health & Medicine

    Is ‘drink plenty of fluids’ good advice?

    Definitive studies need to determine whether increasing fluid intake during respiratory infections is really a good idea, says a team of researchers.

    By
  6. Plants

    Sudden oak death jumps quarantine

    The funguslike microbe that causes sudden oak death has turned up on nursery plants in southern California for the first time.

    By
  7. Tech

    Golden waves make stretchy microcircuits

    Microscale wires with stretchy, wiggly shapes may prove useful for sensors and other electronic gadgets embedded in pliable or elastic items such as clothing or living tissue.

    By
  8. 19395

    This article was an eye-opener. Our courts may be accepting many analytical techniques that haven’t been adequately validated. We should be careful, especially where the death penalty is involved, not to be guilty of hubris in the application of scientific knowledge. Bob SauerPrinceton, Mass.

    By
  9. Materials Science

    Forensics on Trial

    A decades-long practice of matching bullets on the basis of their chemical makeup is flawed, and the story behind this forensic technique reveals how science can get distorted in the courtroom.

    By
  10. 19394

    This article suggests that pregnant rattlesnakes might give their offspring a better chance of survival if they congregated for birth. If that were true, one might expect that there would also be a convergence of birth times. While doing research over 25 years ago, we had five of six pregnant rattlesnakes caged together all give […]

    By
  11. Animals

    The Social Lives of Snakes

    A lot of pit vipers aren't the asocial loners that even snake fans had long assumed.

    By
  12. Humans

    From the March 17, 1934, issue

    An African snake handler, the speed of lightning, and the emptiness of nebulae.

    By