All Stories
- Psychology
There’s a sour side to serotonin
Serotonin has a sour side. The chemical messenger helps mice to taste sour, a new study shows.
- Cosmology
‘The Cosmic Web’ weaves tale of universe’s architecture
A new book chronicles the quest over the last century to understand how the universe is pieced together and how it came to be this way.
- Plants
To catch a meal, a Venus flytrap counts to five
It takes two taps to trigger a Venus flytrap to close. Another three, a new study finds, are needed to turn on genes for producing enzymes.
- Earth
Earth’s inner secrets divulged in ‘Into the Heart of Our World’
A scientific journey to the center of the Earth includes just as much excitement and mystery as Jules Verne’s classic novel, a new book demonstrates.
- Health & Medicine
Rapid spread of Zika virus in the Americas raises alarm
After blazing through Brazil, a mosquito-borne virus called Zika, which may cause birth defects, is now poised to jump to the United States.
- Animals
Tegu lizards warm up for mating season
The heat is on in tegu lizards during mating season, study suggests.
- Animals
Tegu lizards warm up for mating
Despite their cold-blooded reputation, tegu lizards boost their body heat while on the prowl for a mate, biologists report online January 22 in Science Advances.
- Astronomy
Middleweight black hole suspected near Milky Way’s center
A gas cloud in the center of the galaxy might be temporarily hosting the second most massive black hole known in the Milky Way.
- Health & Medicine
Noisy toys mute conversations
Electronic toys put a damper on the conversations between parents and babies.
- Agriculture
Just adding pollinators could boost small-farm yields
Adding pollinators could start closing gap in yields for small farms.
- Physics
Early quark estimates not entirely realized
Decades of research have shed a little light on quarks, the mysterious building blocks of atoms.
- Climate
2015 smashed heat records
Spurred by global warming and a “super El Niño,” 2015 now ranks as the warmest year since record-keeping began in 1880.
