All Stories
- Animals
Pandas’ gut bacteria resemble carnivores’
Unlike other vegetarians, the bamboo eaters lack plant-digesting microbes.
- Animals
Vampire squid take mommy breaks
The vampire squid again defies its sensationalist name with a life in the slow lane.
- Planetary Science
Boulders balance on tiny tips as comet 67P zooms through space
Three boulders on comet 67P resemble balancing rocks that are seen on Earth.
- Environment
E-cigarette flavorings may harm lungs
Certain e-cigarette flavors, such as banana pudding, may damage lung tissue
- Materials Science
Spiders spin stronger threads with nanotubes
Spiders sprayed with carbon nanotubes spin supertough strands of silk.
- Life
Typical American diet can damage immune system
The typical American diet sends our good and bad gut microbes out of balance and can lead to inflammation and a host of problems.
- Health & Medicine
A firm grip may predict risk of death better than blood pressure
The strength of people’s grip could predict how likely they are to die if they develop cardiovascular or other diseases.
- Life
Male stag beetles face weighty problem for flight
Male stag beetles need enormous mandibles to fend off other males and find a mate, but computer simulations show that the giant jaws make running and flying very difficult.
- Plants
The art and science of the hedgerow
Spiky hawthorn trees have found many uses despite their unforgiving nature, Bill Vaughn writes in ‘Hawthorn.’
- Psychology
Quantity counts for baboons
Counting-like logic helps baboons track and compare accumulating sets of peanuts.
- Science & Society
Histories left behind by the dispossessed
‘Dispatches from Dystopia’ chronicles adventures in modernist wastelands to recount tales of the invisible and the overlooked, the exiled and the dispossessed.
- Genetics
How to rewire the eye
The cutting-edge technology called optogenetics may offer a workaround to partially restore vision even after the retina’s light-sensing rods and cones die.
