All Stories
- Materials Science
Morphing noodles start flat but bend into curly pasta shapes as they’re cooked
Shape-shifting pasta could potentially cut down on packaging and save space during shipping.
- Science & Society
Vaccine hesitancy is nothing new. Here’s the damage it’s done over centuries
Pockets of people have railed against vaccines as long as the preventives have existed.
- Health & Medicine
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine recommended for adolescents by CDC committee
With the vaccine cleared for high schoolers and many middle schoolers, focus now turns to clinical trials testing COVID-19 vaccines in younger kids.
- Neuroscience
Scientists remotely controlled the social behavior of mice with light
New devices — worn as headsets and backpacks — rely on optogenetics, in which bursts of light toggle neurons, to control mouse brain activity.
- Space
Planet-forming disks around stars may come preloaded with ingredients for life
Methanol spotted around a hot, young star probably originated in interstellar space, suggesting some chemistry for life may start before stars form.
- Animals
A common antibiotic slows a mysterious coral disease
Applying the antibiotic amoxicillin to infected lesions halted tissue death in corals for at least 11 months after treatment.
- Health & Medicine
How India’s COVID-19 crisis became the worst in the world
Scientists say a laxed attitude toward masking and social distancing plus the rise of new variants may have fueled India’s coronavirus surge.
- Neuroscience
Mild zaps to the brain can boost a pain-relieving placebo effect
By sending electric current into the brain, scientists can enhance the pain-relieving placebo effect and dampen the pain-inducing nocebo effect.
- Paleontology
T. rex’s incredible biting force came from its stiff lower jaw
T. rex could generate incredibly strong bite forces thanks to a boomerang-shaped bone that stiffened the lower jaw, a new analysis suggests.
- Climate
Mangrove forests on the Yucatan Peninsula store record amounts of carbon
Dense tangles of roots and natural water-filled sinkholes join forces to stockpile as much as 2,800 metric tons of carbon per hectare in the soil.
- Microbes
These climate-friendly microbes recycle carbon without producing methane
A newly discovered group of single-celled archaea break down decaying plants without adding the greenhouse gas methane to the atmosphere.
- Astronomy
Saturn has a fuzzy core, spread over more than half the planet’s diameter
Analysis of a wave in one of Saturn’s rings has revealed that the planet’s core is diffuse and bloated with lots of hydrogen and helium.
