All Stories
- Life
Rattlesnakes have reduced their repertoire of venoms
The most recent common ancestor of today’s rattlesnakes had a huge set of toxin-producing genes. Modern rattlesnake species have independently ditched some of these genes.
- Health & Medicine
Maybe you don’t need to burp your baby
Everybody does it. But burping babies after a meal may not cut down on crying or spit-ups, a study suggests.
- Animals
Hawaiian crows ace tool-user test
The almost-extinct Hawaiian crow joins the small, select flock of birds shown to use sticks tools routinely and well to wiggle bits of food out of crevices.
- Archaeology
Oldest indigo-dyed fabric found
South American society was first known to use complex dye process on fabrics.
- Life
Color vision strategy defies textbook picture
Cone cells in the retina see in black and white and color.
- Planetary Science
Source of Charon’s red north pole is probably Pluto
The dark red pole on Charon, the largest moon of Pluto, is probably gas that escaped from Pluto and was then transformed by sunlight.
- Astronomy
Gaia mission’s Milky Way map pinpoints locations of billion-plus stars
New map of the galaxy provides unprecedented positions of over 1 billion stars and promises of a detailed 3-D atlas to come.
- Planetary Science
Source of Charon’s red north pole is probably Pluto
The dark red pole on Charon, the largest moon of Pluto, is probably gas that escaped from Pluto and was then transformed by sunlight.
- Animals
Sandboxes keep chicken parasites at bay
Fluffing feathers in sand and dust prevents severe mite infections in cage-free hens.
- Animals
Kauai’s native forest birds are headed toward extinction
Kauai’s honeycreepers are losing their last refuges from mosquito-borne diseases that are spreading due to climate change. Some could become extinct within a decade.
- Science & Society
See where Clinton and Trump stand on science
Science News looks at where presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump stand on seven key science issues, from genetic engineering to space exploration.
- Planetary Science
Moon rocks may have misled asteroid bombardment dating
Discrepancies in moon rock dating muddy Late Heavy Bombardment debate.
