All Stories
- Health & Medicine
Genes may influence placebo effect
Certain gene variants may predispose people to experience the placebo effect, which may have implications for clinical trials and personalized medicine.
- Planetary Science
Atmospheric water may be giving Saturn its spots
Planetary scientists think that water in Saturn’s atmosphere could be driving the massive storms that appear every few decades in the ringed planet’s atmosphere.
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Flight delayed: There’s a coyote on the runway
A new study tallies up airport incidents involving carnivores and finds coyotes are the biggest threat.
- Planetary Science
Comet 67P shows no sign of magnetism
Philae found no evidence of a magnetic field on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, but did send back some clues about its rough landing.
- Astronomy
Afterglow alerts astronomers to gamma-ray burst
Astronomers have spotted the remnant glow from a gamma-ray burst without first observing its beam of high-energy gamma rays.
- Neuroscience
Marijuana component fights epilepsy
A buzz-free extract of marijuana could help epilepsy patients whose seizures resist other treatments.
- Physics
Rubidium atoms used to record coldest temperature — ever
A swarm of rubidium atoms has been cooled to about 50 trillionths of a kelvin, making it the coldest substance ever measured.
- Plants
Plants suck in nicotine from nearby smokers
Peppermint plants can build up nicotine from tobacco dropped on their soil or smoked indoors.
- Science & Society
The Angelina effect should be about knowing your cancer risk
Angelina Jolie’s public message about her medical decisions related to cancer is about knowing your risks for disease, not hers.
- Astronomy
Source of puzzling cosmic signals found — in the kitchen
One type of radio burst has a pretty mundane origin: prematurely opened microwave ovens.
- Psychology
Saying ‘I’ and ‘me’ all the time doesn’t make you a narcissist
People who utter lots of first-person singular pronouns such as "I" and "me" score no higher on narcissism questionnaires than peers who engage in little "I"-talk.
- Environment
Oil from BP spill probably sprayed out in tiny drops
Oil that gushed from the well in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill may have shattered into tiny droplets, with high pressures doing the work of dispersants.
