All Stories
-
Sticking to our mission: covering science writ large
The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has suddenly overturned every corner of life, editor in chief Nancy Shute writes.
- Health & Medicine
Can plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients treat the sick?
Researchers are racing to set up clinical trials of antibody-rich convalescent plasma from recovered patients to treat or prevent COVID-19.
- Chemistry
Beets bleed red but a chemistry tweak can create a blue hue
A new blue dye derived from beet juice might prove an alternative to synthetic blue dyes in foods, cosmetics or fabrics.
- Science & Society
The U.S. has resisted the metric system for more than 50 years
Australia adopted the metric system 50 years ago. The United States tried by passing legislation for a voluntary conversion that was largely ignored.
- Health & Medicine
Just breathing or talking may be enough to spread COVID-19 after all
Until now, experts have said that the virus spreads only through large droplets released when people cough or sneeze, but it may spread more easily.
- Neuroscience
Mice’s facial expressions can reveal a wide range of emotions
Pleasure, pain, fear and other feelings can be reflected in mice’s faces, sophisticated computational analyses show.
- Humans
Southern Africa may have hosted a hominid transition 2 million years ago
Braincases excavated from the Drimolen caves suggest Homo erectus and Paranthropus robustus may have coexisted in southern Africa.
- Math
How large a gathering is too large during the coronavirus pandemic?
Mathematical models explain why large gatherings are especially dangerous in an epidemic, and identify how large is too large.
- Earth
Roughly 90 million years ago, a rainforest grew near the South Pole
A forest flourished within 1,000 kilometers of the South Pole, probably because of high atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and an ice-free Antarctica.
- Health & Medicine
How coronavirus control measures could affect its global death toll
Slowing the virus’ spread will save millions of lives, but differences among countries could vary the pandemic’s toll in different places.
- Anthropology
Lucy’s species heralded the rise of long childhoods in hominids
Australopithecus afarensis had prolonged brain growth before the Homo genus appeared, but it still resulted in brains with chimplike neural structure.
- Physics
A mysterious superconductor’s wave could reveal the physics behind the materials
Scientists finally spotted a pair-density wave in a high-temperature superconductor.
