All Stories

  1. Astronomy

    Eclipse watchers will go after the biggest solar mystery: Why is the corona so hot?

    Usually when you move away from a heat source, it gets cooler. Not so in the sun’s atmosphere.

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  2. Astronomy

    Does the corona look different when solar activity is high versus when it’s low?

    Carbondale, Ill., will get two eclipses in a row, seven years apart — making it the perfect spot to watch the solar cycle in action.

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  3. Astronomy

    Cosmic lens lets astronomers zoom in on a black hole’s burps

    The beginnings of a jet from an active black hole in a distant galaxy were spotted thanks to a lucky alignment.

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  4. Astronomy

    Here are the paths of the next 15 total solar eclipses

    From 2017 to 2040, there will be 15 total solar eclipses. Here's a map of where to see them.

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  5. Astronomy

    We share the Milky Way with 100 million black holes

    New census calculates black hole populations in galaxies big and small.

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  6. Astronomy

    Where does the solar wind come from? The eclipse may offer answers

    A quick-fire polarization camera should help scientists detect the origins of the solar wind during the Aug. 21 eclipse.

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  7. Astronomy

    Eclipses show wrong physics can give right results

    Math for making astronomical predictions doesn’t necessarily reflect physical reality.

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  8. Life

    Embryos kill off male tissue to become female

    Female embryos actively dismantle male reproductive tissue, a textbook-challenging study suggests.

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  9. Neuroscience

    How an itch hitches a ride to the brain

    Scientists have figured out how your brain registers the sensation of itch.

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  10. Astronomy

    Why are the loops in the sun’s atmosphere so neat and tidy?

    Observations during the total solar eclipse may explain why the sun’s atmosphere is so organized despite arising from a tangled magnetic field.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    A new tool could one day improve Lyme disease diagnosis

    There soon could be a way to differentiate between Lyme disease and a similar tick-associated illness.

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  12. Animals

    Giant larvaceans could be ferrying ocean plastic to the seafloor

    Giant larvaceans could mistakenly capture microplastics, in addition to food, in their mucus houses and transfer them to the seafloor in their feces.

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