All Stories
- Life
Fossil fish eye has 300 million-year-old rods and cones
A fossil fish shows the earliest evidence of rods and cones, cells essential for color vision in vertebrates.
- Animals
The scent of a worry
The smell of fear makes other rats stressed. Now, scientists have isolated the Eau de Terror that lets rats communicate their concerns.
- Genetics
The year in genomes
From the tiny Antarctic midge to the towering loblolly pine, scientists this year cracked open a variety of genetic instruction manuals to learn about some of Earth’s most diverse inhabitants.
- Health & Medicine
Some heart patients do better when the doctor’s away
When cardiologists are away at national conferences, patients with acute heart conditions are more likely to survive, a study shows.
- Astronomy
Hubble telescope spots our galaxy’s newest neighbor
The Milky Way galaxy has a new neighbor, Hubble images show.
- Life
Bird flu follows avian flyways
A deadly bird flu virus spreads along wildfowl migration routes in Asia.
- Microbes
The year in microbiomes
This year, scientists pegged microbes as important players in several aspects of human health, including obesity and cancer.
- Animals
Starving mantis females lie to make a meal of a male
When in desperate straits, a female false garden mantid turns into a femme fatale, emitting false chemical cues that lures in a male to eat.
- Chemistry
Retraction looms for brute-force chemistry study
A 2011 study on tearing apart ring-shaped molecules is set to be retracted following a misconduct investigation.
- Planetary Science
Grazing crater rim may have saved comet lander
Bumping off the rim of a crater probably saved the robotic comet Philae from a cold, dark death, a new analysis of images suggests.
- Science & Society
This study of hype in press releases will change journalism
A survey of press releases and their related scientific studies shows that hype may creep from press releases to news coverage. But this doesn’t give anyone at any stage of the news cycle a pass.
- Astronomy
Revived Kepler telescope finds first exoplanet
NASA’s Kepler space telescope finds its first planet — a possible super-Earth — since getting a second chance at life.
