All Stories
- Astronomy
Fountains of spewing gas provide look at megastar formation
Fountains of gas erupt from a young massive star, giving astronomers a play-by-play on how stellar heavyweights form.
- Anthropology
Footprints offer clues about daily hominid life
Early male members of the human genus spent a lot of time together by the water, as their footprints attest.
By Bruce Bower - Neuroscience
Rats can navigate mazes, even when blind
Blind rats can learn to navigate with a compass and microchip prosthetic wired into their brains. Similar devices may one day help humans have super senses.
- Animals
Fossilized seashells’ true colors revealed
To the naked eye, fossilized seashells lack the colorful patterns of their living counterparts. But ultraviolet light can reveal some of their unique hues.
- Animals
Heat makes scuttling tarantulas less coordinated
On hot days, tarantula run faster, but their may be harder to bend and flex at high speeds, researchers find.
- Health & Medicine
A more accurate prenatal test to predict Down syndrome
A test to detect genetic problems such as Down syndrome examines a baby’s DNA in the mother’s blood and may limit the need for more invasive screening.
- Anthropology
Kennewick Man’s bones reveal his diet
Pacific Northwest man who lived 9,000 years ago ate from an almost entirely seafood menu, a new analysis finds.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Injured baby hearts may be coaxed to regenerate
Shots of a growth factor protein reduce cell death in infant mice with heart damage.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Older moms may have options to reduce newborns’ risks
Although babies born to older mothers face a higher danger of congenital heart defects, exercising moms may offset this added risk, a study in mice shows.
By Nathan Seppa - Tech
Exoskeleton boot makes for more efficient walking
Newly developed exoskeleton boots that are unpowered are showing scientists that it is still possible to make walking even more efficient for humans.
- Anthropology
‘Little Foot’ pushes back age of earliest South African hominids
Study suggests Lucy’s species had a South African foil nearly 3.7 million years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Animals
How human activities may be creating coywolves
Endangered red wolves will mate with coyotes when their partners are killed, which often happens because of human activities, a new study finds.