All Stories
- Anthropology
Viking-era woman sheds light on Iceland’s earliest settlers
Viking-era woman accompanied island’s early settlers as a child from Scandinavia or Britain.
By Bruce Bower - Animals
Math models predict mysterious monarch navigation
Researchers have come up with a series of equations to predict how monarchs use their eyes and antennae to figure out how to get to Mexico.
- Life
Having worms can be good for the gut
Parasitic worms shift gut microbes and protect against bowel disease.
- Physics
Itty bitty engine puts a single atom to work
Scientists have created a miniature heat engine out of a single atom.
- Ecosystems
Heat may outpace corals’ ability to cope
Corals may soon lose their ability to withstand warming waters.
- Genetics
Malaria parasite doesn’t pass drug immunity to its offspring
Malaria parasites resistant to the antimalarial drug atovaquone die in mosquitoes, a new study finds.
- Environment
EPA underestimates methane emissions
Methane estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency fail to capture the full scope of U.S. emissions of the greenhouse gas, studies show.
- Animals
Pied flycatchers cruise nonstop for days to cross the Sahara
Teeny, tiny passerine birds called pied flycatchers fly day and night during their annual migration south across the Sahara.
- Health & Medicine
Zika’s role as a cause of severe birth defects confirmed
A new analysis from the Centers for Disease control and Prevention confirms that Zika virus infection causes microcephaly and other severe birth defects.
By Meghan Rosen - Quantum Physics
Gamers outperform computer at quantum task
Quantum mechanics may be weird, but a new video game shows that human intuition can still best computers at quantum tasks.
- Neuroscience
Spinal cord work-around reanimates paralyzed hand
A neural prosthesis can bypass a severed spinal cord, allowing a paralyzed hand to once again move.
- Climate
Pollen becoming bee junk food as CO2 rises
Rising CO2 lowers protein content in pollen, threatening nutrition for bees.
By Susan Milius