All Stories

  1. Genetics

    Faulty gene can turn colds deadly for babies, toddlers

    Children with a faulty virus-sensing gene may land in intensive care after a cold.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  2. Health & Medicine

    Here are a few more things for the childproofing list

    Some seemingly safe objects may be particularly dangerous for little kids.

    By Laura Sanders
  3. Anthropology

    ‘Slam-dunk’ find puts hunter-gatherers in Florida 14,500 years ago

    Finds at an underwater site put people in Florida a surprisingly long time ago.

    By Bruce Bower
  4. Neuroscience

    Bayesian reasoning implicated in some mental disorders

    An 18th century math theory may offer new ways to understand schizophrenia, autism, anxiety and depression.

    By Laura Sanders
  5. Astronomy

    Earth has nothing on this exoplanet’s lightning storms

    Lightning storms far more intense than any on Earth might explain radio waves that once came from a planet 124 light-years away.

    By Christopher Crockett
  6. Neuroscience

    Brain waves in REM sleep help store memories

    Mice with disturbed REM sleep show memory trouble.

    By Laura Sanders
  7. Earth

    Remnants from Earth’s birth linger 4.5 billion years later

    Shaken, not stirred: Tungsten isotopes reveal that mantle convection has left some remnants of ancient Earth untouched for 4.5 billion years.

    By Beth Geiger
  8. Life

    Gut microbe may challenge textbook on complex cells

    Science may finally have found a complex eukaryote cell that has lost all of its mitochondria.

    By Susan Milius
  9. Health & Medicine

    Early work on human growth hormone paved way for synthetic versions

    In 1966, researchers reported the complete chemical structure of human growth hormone. Today synthetic growth hormone is used to treat growth hormone deficiency.

    By Sarah Schwartz
  10. Life

    How to trap sperm

    Lab-made beads can trick and trap sperm, potentially preventing pregnancy or selecting sperm for fertility treatments.

    By Sarah Schwartz
  11. Health & Medicine

    Healthiest weight just might be ‘overweight’

    The body mass index tied to lowest risk of death has risen since the 1970s. It now falls squarely in the “overweight” category.

    By Esther Landhuis
  12. Quantum Physics

    Physicists smash particle imitators

    A new quasiparticle collider smashes together the faux-particles that appear in solid materials.

    By Emily Conover