All Stories
- Math
Spirals inspire walking aids for people with disabilities
Long admired for their beauty, spirals have inspired a shoe that may help disabled people walk. The shapes make for a better crutch and an entertaining skateboard as well.
- Paleontology
Some trilobites sported dual digestive tracts
CT scans reveal trilobites with two-lane digestive tracts.
- Neuroscience
Study of psychiatric disorders is difficult in man and mouse
Studying human psychiatric disorders in animals presents a challenge. A new study highlights one of the ways scientists can study human mutations by slipping them into mice.
- Life
Close look at new fungus reveals origins, spread of salamander killer
A second chytrid fungus described last year targets salamanders and may be spreading in the animal export trade.
- Animals
Ten real-life Halloween horrors in the natural world
Vampires and witches are nothing compared to mind-controlling parasites, nose ticks and antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
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For Halloween, Gory Details favorites and farewell
Gory Details blogger Erika Engelhaupt left Science News earlier this year. In a farewell post and in honor of Halloween, she reminisces about some of her favorite, and scariest, posts.
- Neuroscience
Scratching releases serotonin, making you itch more
Scratching an itch releases serotonin in the brain, which can eventually make the itch sensation worse, a new study shows.
- Earth
Early animals couldn’t catch a breath
Low levels of oxygen may have hindered evolution of animal life hundreds of millions of years ago.
- Tech
Sheath helps ‘aqua-hamster’ survive underwater
Scientists hoped a membrane invented in 1964 would let submarines pull air from seawater.
- Animals
Birds large and small hop over obstacles in similar ways
Bipedal birds, from tiny quail to huge ostriches, tackled a step in a similar way, minimizing energy cost and maximizing safety.
- Animals
New frog species discovered in New York City
A new frog species lives up and down the East Coast. It was discovered when ecologists realized its ‘ribbit’ was distinct from the calls of a lookalike species.
- Health & Medicine
Mini stomachs grown in lab
Clumps of human gastric cells could help researchers study stomach diseases.
