All Stories
- Animals
When baboons travel, majority rules
GPS study suggests baboons use simple rules to resolve travel disputes without leaders.
- Genetics
Ivory DNA pinpoints poaching hot spots
Genetic analysis of ivory DNA reveals major poaching hot spots in Africa.
- Agriculture
Many of Earth’s groundwater basins run deficits
Twenty-one of Earth’s 37 largest groundwater basins are rapidly depleting, satellite data show.
- Anthropology
Kennewick Man’s DNA links him to present-day Native Americans
Genetic analysis of Kennewick Man suggests that the ancient Pacific Northwest man was most closely related to modern Native Americans, not Polynesians.
- Health & Medicine
Curtailing calories on a schedule yields health benefits
Eating an extreme low-calorie diet that mimics fasting just a few consecutive days a month may yield a bounty of health benefits, research suggests.
- Animals
Kangaroos are lefties
Scientists find evidence of handedness in marsupials that walk on two, but not four, legs.
- Genetics
Ebola continues to shift, but grows no more fatal
In the West African epidemic, Ebola evolved and spread quickly, but the virus is not becoming deadlier over time.
- Science & Society
Deflategate favored foul play over science
Science didn’t get center stage in the rulings on whether the New England Patriots underinflated footballs during championship game against the Indianapolis Colts.
- Earth
Dinosaurs may not have seen the Grand Canyon after all
New geologic comparisons peg the Grand Canyon’s inception well after dinosaurs went extinct.
- Animals
Unpredictable egg scramble throws off parasitic parents
Eggs of some species of warbler and weaver birds appear to have individual signatures, which can help distinguish them from the eggs of parasitic cuckoos.
- Animals
How mantis shrimps spar
In ritualized combat between deadly mantis shrimp, blows count but don’t kill.
- Science & Society
Home-brewed heroin: Hold the hype
Now is the time to think about policy for synthetically produced morphine, but the process, if it bears out, is years away from working.
