All Stories

  1. Plants

    Pretty flower uses dead arthropods to lure protectors

    A sticky columbine from California lures arthropods to their death to lure protectors to the plant, a new study suggests.

    By Sarah Zielinski
  2. Paleontology

    Long-necked monsters roamed more than Scotland’s lochs

    The discovery of sauropod footprints in Scotland suggest the dinosaurs lived in lagoons.

    By Meghan Rosen
  3. Genetics

    Can DNA predict a face?

    DNA-based facial sketches are moving into the crime-solving arena. With current science, predictions of some features are better than others.

    By Meghan Rosen
  4. Health & Medicine

    Taking antiviral drug ‘on demand’ can guard against HIV

    The antiviral drug Truvada taken before and after sex cuts HIV transmission rates.

    By Meghan Rosen
  5. Health & Medicine

    Taking antiviral drug ‘on demand’ guards against HIV

    The antiviral drug Truvada taken before and after sex cuts HIV transmission rates.

    By Meghan Rosen
  6. Physics

    Maxwell’s demon faces the heat

    A device inspired by an 1867 thought experiment fails to break the second law of thermodynamics, which governs the flow of heat and the drive toward maximum disorder.

    By Andrew Grant
  7. Animals

    Inside the roaring sex lives of howler monkeys

    Listening to the intense roars of howler monkeys in Mexico inspired scientists to decipher how and why calls differ among species.

    By Helen Thompson
  8. Astronomy

    Super-Earths, meet superpuffs, a lighter weight class of planet

    Superpuffs are underweight, oversized planets that formed in outskirts of star systems before cuddling up close to their sun.

    By Christopher Crockett
  9. Anthropology

    People roamed tip of South America 18,500 years ago

    Stone tools, charred animal bones and fire ash found at the Monte Verde site in Chile indicate people reached South America’s southernmost territory at least 18,500 years ago.

    By Bruce Bower
  10. Archaeology

    Search for fossils from the comfort of home

    The citizen science website FossilFinder.org lets anyone with an Internet connection look for fossils and characterize rocks at Kenya’s Lake Turkana Basin

    By Erin Wayman
  11. Earth

    Pioneering geologist sought to demystify volcanic eruptions

    In The Last Volcano, a geologist profiles Thomas Jaggar, one of the 20th century’s most influential volcanologists.

    By Sid Perkins
  12. Animals

    Snakes evolved from burrowing ancestor, new data suggest

    A new X-ray analysis of inner ears is the latest to weigh in on whether modern snakes descended from a burrowing or a swimming reptile.

    By Meghan Rosen