All Stories
- Chemistry
Four newest elements on periodic table get names
Four elements officially recognized in December, highlighted in yellow, now have names that honor Japan, Moscow, Tennessee and physicist Yuri Oganessian.
- Life
Obesity’s weight gain message starts in gut
Acetate made by gut microbes stimulates weight gain, research in rodents suggests.
- Anthropology
Hobbit history gets new preface
Jaw, tooth fossils put new spin on evolution of Homo floresiensis.
- Life
By leaking light, squid hides in plain sight
Glass squid camouflage their eyes with wonderfully inefficient bioluminescence.
- Astronomy
Space-based probe passes tests for gravitational wave detection
The LISA Pathfinder mission has demonstrated that future observatories in space could detect gravitational waves.
- Astronomy
Space-based probe passes tests for gravitational wave detection
The LISA Pathfinder mission has demonstrated that future observatories in space could detect gravitational waves.
- Earth
Spy satellites reveal early start to Antarctic ice shelf collapse
Declassified spy satellite images reveal that Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf began destabilizing decades earlier than previously thought.
- Paleontology
Human route into Americas traced via trail of bison fossils
Bread crumbs in the form of ancient bison may mark one potential path that humans took to colonize the Americas.
- Environment
Bikini Atoll radiation levels remain alarmingly high
Lingering radiation levels from nuclear bomb tests on Bikini Atoll are far higher than previously estimated.
- Science & Society
Francis Crick’s good luck revolutionized biology
Francis Crick, born 100 years ago, chose to study molecular biology first and then later tackled consciousness.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum weirdness survives space travel
Quantum weirdness travels from Earth to space and back again.
- Animals
Maximum size of giant squid remains a mystery
A scientist has come up with a new estimate of the maximum size of giant squid. He says the animals could be as long as two public buses.
