All Stories
- Life
How electric eels put more zip in their zap
With feisty prey, an electric eel curls its tail to intensify shocks and exhaust prey.
By Susan Milius - Life
Rare reptile holds clue to penis evolution
Preserved Victorian specimens reveal budding embryonic penis that disappears before adulthood.
By Susan Milius - Anthropology
Synchronized dancing boosts pain tolerance
Dancing in sync to high energy routines increase pain tolerance and helps people bond as a group, a study suggests.
- Earth
Parched parts of Earth expanding
More drylands, largely impacting developing nations, are forecasted for near future.
- Physics
Acoustic tractor beam reels in objects like the Death Star
A platform tiled with ultrasound-emitting speakers can get small objects to hover, spin, move around and get reeled in as if pulled by a tractor beam.
By Andrew Grant - Health & Medicine
Daily drug shown effective in preventing HIV infections
After a history of controversy, preexposure prophylaxis has been demonstrated to work for HIV prevention.
By Laura Beil - Life
Cats versus viruses: Arms race goes back millennia
A special protein has been protecting cats from feline AIDS for at least 60,000 years, genetic analysis suggests.
- Animals
Cat-versus-virus arms race goes back millennia
Researchers have found evidence of an ancient arms race between Felis silvestris catus, the species familiar today as the domestic cat, and feline immunodeficiency virus.
- Planetary Science
Cassini preps to shower in Enceladus’ ocean
The Cassini spacecraft is gearing up for one last plunge through the water geysers on Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn.
- Health & Medicine
Eating meat officially raises cancer risk
Eating processed meats like bacon, ham and sausage causes cancer, says the World Health Organization.
- Quantum Physics
Light mimics hotel with limitless vacancies
By mimicking a mathematician’s method for creating vacancies in a hotel with an infinite number of rooms, physicists may have found a way of increasing the amount of data that can be carried via light.
By Andrew Grant - Animals
Salamander ancestors could regenerate limbs
Salamanders and ancient amphibians share similar way of regenerating limbs.