All Stories
- Neuroscience
Year in review: Gaps in brain nets might store memories
Holes in nets that surround nerve cells may store long-term memories, scientists proposed this year.
- Math
Year in review: New algorithm quickly spots identical networks
In what may be a once-in-a-decade advance, a computer scientist claimed to have devised an algorithm that efficiently solves the notorious graph isomorphism problem.
- Health & Medicine
Year in review: Ebola vaccines on the way
After more than a year of furiously developing and testing potential Ebola vaccines, two candidates have risen to the top and may soon be available for use.
- Life
Science explains what makes dogs such sloppy drinkers
There’s hidden precision in the splashy mess of a dog drinking.
- Animals
Forgetful male voles more likely to wander from mate
Poor memory linked to a hormone receptor in the brain could make male prairie voles more promiscuous.
- Planetary Science
Comets-spewing-oxygen club gets new member
Halley’s comet becomes possibly the second comet known to be carting around oxygen buried since the formation of the solar system.
- Plants
Single gene influences a petunia’s primary pollinator
Mutations on a single gene determine how much ultraviolet light a petunia flower absorbs, and in turn, which animal pollinates the flower.
- Science & Society
Analysis gives a glimpse of the extraordinary language of lying
A study of fraudulent research articles reveals patterns in language that indicate a paper is worthy of closer scrutiny.
- Climate
195 nations approve historic climate accord
The Paris climate talks end with delegates from 195 nations releasing a hard-fought agreement to curb climate change and limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius.
- Cosmology
Debate grows over whether X-rays are a sign of dark matter
The dwarf galaxy Draco, which is chock-full of dark matter, doesn’t emit a band of X-rays that researchers hoped were produced by the mysterious invisible stuff.
- Life
To push through goo, use itty, bitty propellers
Newly designed micropropellers mimic bacteria to move through viscous surroundings.
- Animals
New movie asks viewers to care about whale hunters. Will they?
A new movie tells the tale of sailors shipwrecked by a whale. But it’s hard to feel sorry for the people trying to kill the animal.
