All Stories
- Health & Medicine
Old product might help smokers quit
A drug used in Eastern Europe for decades by people trying to quit smoking outperformed a nicotine patch in a six-month test.
- Climate
Super typhoon shoved supersized boulder
Typhoon Haiyan pushed a 180-ton boulder, the most massive rock ever seen moved by a storm.
- Agriculture
Restoring crop genes to wild form may make plants more resilient
Restoring wild genes could make plants more resilient in tough environments.
- Life
Fast test reveals drug-resistant bacteria
A new test uses time-lapse photography to see within a few hours whether individual bacterial cells are vulnerable to antibiotics.
- Science & Society
Ebola, Rosetta, e-cigarettes and more top stories of 2014
West Africa’s Ebola epidemic captured the attention of both the scientific world, and the world at large in 2014, placing it first among the Top 25 stories of the year.
- Science & Society
Science’s good, bad, ugly year
In the race for Top Science Story of 2014, some of the contenders stumbled before reaching the finish line.
- Science & Society
Science inspires awe — and arguments
As an eventful year in the sciences concludes, one that sparked both triumph and tragedy, SN's Editor in Chief contemplates 2014's most interesting stories.
- Genetics
Evolve and Linkage turn science into games
In the two new games Evolve and Linkage, biological principles are made entertaining and strategic.
- Microbes
Year in review: Science faces Ebola epidemic
West Africa’s 2014 Ebola epidemic showed what can happen when a contagious virus emerges where cultural practices, public fears and porous borders fuel the spread of disease.
- Oceans
Alcatraz escapees could have made it safely to shore
Detailed simulations of the San Francisco Bay suggest that three prisoners who escaped from the prison on Alcatraz Island in 1962 could have made it safely to shore.
- Astronomy
Year in review: Dust obscures possible gravitational wave discovery
A possible signal from moments after the Big Bang may be due to dust in the Milky Way galaxy.
- Humans
Year in review: Old humans reveal secrets
DNA of the oldest modern humans is rewriting the prehistories of Europe, Siberia and the Americas.
