All Stories

  1. Animals

    Desert ants look to the sky, rely on memory to navigate backward

    Desert ants appear to use a combination of visual memory and celestial cues to make it back to the nest walking butt-first, researchers find.

    By Helen Thompson
  2. Climate

    Earth’s last major warm period was as hot as today

    Sea surface temperatures today are comparable to those around 125,000 years ago, a time when sea levels were 6 to 9 meters higher, new research suggests.

    By Thomas Sumner
  3. Ecosystems

    In debate over origin of fairy circles, both sides might be right

    Odd bare spots called fairy circles in African grasslands might be caused by both termites and plants.

    By Susan Milius
  4. Science & Society

    Cancer studies get mixed grades on redo tests

    Replications of cancer studies fail to reproduce some results.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  5. Climate

    Monsoon deluges turned ancient Sahara green

    The ancient Sahara Desert sprouted trees and lakes for thousands of years thanks to intense rainfall.

    By Bruce Bower
  6. Climate

    For three years in a row, Earth breaks heat record

    Spurred by climate change and heat from a strong El Niño, 2016 was the hottest year on record.

    By Thomas Sumner
  7. Tech

    Heart-hugging robot does the twist (and squeeze)

    A robotic sleeve that slips around the heart mimics the heart’s natural movement, squeezing and twisting to pump blood in pigs. If it works in humans, it could buy time for heart failure patients awaiting a transplant.

    By Meghan Rosen
  8. Life

    A message to rock climbers: Be kind to nature

    Scientists are only just starting to figure out the impacts that the sport of rock climbing is having on cliff ecosystems.

    By Sarah Zielinski
  9. Planetary Science

    Weird wave found in Venus’ wind-whipped atmosphere

    A 10,000-kilometer-long gravity wave arched across the upper atmosphere of Venus. The feature may have been the largest of its kind in the solar system.

    By Ashley Yeager
  10. Earth

    Coastal waters were an oxygen oasis 2.3 billion years ago

    Coastal waters contained enough oxygen to support complex life-forms including some animals hundreds of millions of years before fossils of such life first appear.

    By Thomas Sumner
  11. Climate

    Petrified tree rings tell ancient tale of sun’s behavior

    The 11-year cycle of solar activity may have been around for at least 290 million years, ancient tree rings suggest.

    By Thomas Sumner
  12. Life

    Here’s how earwax might clean ears

    Science seeks inspiration in earwax for dreams of self-cleaning machinery.

    By Susan Milius