All Stories

  1. Particle Physics

    Year in review: Collider creates pentaquarks

    Two particles discovered in 2015 are each composed of five quarks.

    By Andrew Grant
  2. Neuroscience

    Year in review: ‘Speed cells’ help make navigation possible

    The discovery of speed cells in the brain filled in a missing piece in the understanding of how the brain creates an internal map of the world.

    By Laura Sanders
  3. Environment

    Year in review: BPA alternatives aren’t benign

    Evidence is accumulating that at least one popular alternative to bisphenol A can enter the body and trigger developmental and physiological changes.

    By Janet Raloff
  4. Animals

    Year in review: New dates, place proposed for dogs’ beginnings

    This year’s dog research suggested older origins and a new location of domestication for man's best friend.

    By Chris Samoray
  5. Humans

    Year in review: Native Americans are Kennewick kin

    Ancient DNA identified 8,500-year-old Kennewick Man as a Native American relative.

    By Bruce Bower
  6. Genetics

    Year in review: Fluke extinction surprises lab

    A die-off of bacteria in a carefully controlled lab experiment offered an evolutionary lesson this year: Survival depends not only on fitness but also on luck.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  7. 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.

    By Laura Sanders
  8. 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.

    By Andrew Grant
  9. 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.

    By Meghan Rosen
  10. Life

    Science explains what makes dogs such sloppy drinkers

    There’s hidden precision in the splashy mess of a dog drinking.

    By Susan Milius
  11. 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.

    By Chris Samoray
  12. 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.

    By Christopher Crockett