All Stories
- Genetics
A billion years of evolution doesn’t change some genes
Human genes can substitute for 47 percent of essential genes in baker’s yeast, new research shows.
- Animals
These birds provide their own drum beat
Male Java sparrows use bill clicks in their songs, which they learn from their dads.
- Environment
Rising dolphin deaths linked to Deepwater Horizon spill
Lung lesions and other injuries link an extensive die-off of dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
- Climate
Tranquil ecosystems may explain wild swings in carbon dioxide stashing
Semiarid ecosystems, such as grasslands and shrublands, are behind the large variation in the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide sucked in by land each year.
- Genetics
Mutations that drive cancer lurk in healthy skin
Healthy tissue carries mutations that drive cancer, samples of normal skin cells show.
- Neuroscience
Brain implants let paralyzed man move robotic arm
Implanting tiny silicon chips in the action-planning part of a paralyzed man’s brain let him smoothly control a robotic limb with his thoughts.
- Climate
Once-stable Antarctic glaciers are now melting rapidly
A group of glaciers in Antarctica that were once stable started rapidly melting in 2009, new research shows.
- Genetics
Ancient DNA pushes back timing of the origin of dogs
DNA extracted from the fossil of an ancient wolf indicates dogs and wolves diverged longer ago than previously thought.
- Animals
Octopuses can ‘see’ with their skin
Eyes aren’t the only cephalopod body parts with light-catching molecules.
- Materials Science
Like a balloon, peculiar magnet grows and shrinks
A recently discovered alloy of iron and gallium can expand and contract like a balloon when exposed to a magnetic field.
- Animals
Rising temperatures may cause problems for cold-blooded critters
Ectotherms cannot easily handle extreme temperatures, a new study finds.
- Archaeology
Earliest known stone tools unearthed in Kenya
East African discoveries suggest stone-tool making started at least 3.3 million years ago.
