All Stories
- Health & Medicine
E-cigarette reports provide science that society craves
Research on vaping fills a crucial need in science’s service to society: providing the best information possible in a timely manner, so people can make wise choices.
- Life
Puzzling cosmic signals, processed food defined and more reader feedback
Readers sort out a definition for processed food, discuss the benefits of tinkering with human DNA and more.
- Astronomy
A loopy look at sunspots
In visible light, sunspots look like dark blotches that often expel flares of searing plasma. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory offers a different view.
- Climate
Pink salmon threatened by freshwater acidification
Ocean acidification gets more attention, but freshwater systems are also acidifying. That’s a problem for young salmon, a new study finds.
- Health & Medicine
Clot-snatching stroke treatment gets the green light
Snatching blood clots from the brain with a wire mesh stent is a new stroke treatment that is now supported in the United States.
- Neuroscience
Old fruit flies’ swagger restored with brain chemical dopamine
Replenishing the chemical communicator dopamine to a handful of nerve cells makes old flies feel frisky again.
- Health & Medicine
Genetic tweak turned plague bacterium deadly
Two genetic changes allowed plague bacteria to cause deadly lung infections and pandemic disease.
- Health & Medicine
E-cigarettes proving to be a danger to teens
E-cigarettes have surpassed cigarettes as the most commonly used tobacco product among teenagers. Medical researchers are sounding the alarm.
- Physics
In retirement, Nobelist takes up moon bouncing
A lifelong amateur radio enthusiast, Joseph Taylor sends signals via the moon.
- Earth
Leap second helps us with the reality of time
A leap second will be inserted at the end of the day on June 30.
- Science & Society
No matter the language, disease risk is hard to communicate
Reassuring messages about MERS might seem designed to stop panic. But in reality, people need to hear the truth, even if it’s uncertain.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum dots get a second chance to shine
Quantum dots, semiconductor particles that can emit a rainbow of colors, have been put to work observing living cells, with possible benefits for medical diagnosis.
