All Stories
- Genetics
Genes tell tale of cat domestication
A peek into cats’ genetic makeup may help reveal how hissing wild felines became purring tabbies.
- Astronomy
Rosetta’s countdown to comet landing has begun
Everything is on track for Rosetta mission scientists to attempt to set the Philae lander on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
- Environment
Thirdhand smoke poses lingering danger
Harmful cigarette chemicals that linger on surfaces, known as thirdhand smoke, can go on to pollute the air and may harm people’s health.
- Planetary Science
Rosetta prepares to let go of its comet lander
To date, everything is a go for scientists to attempt to land a robotic probe on a comet.
- Planetary Science
Comet delivered a showy meteor shower — on Mars
Comet Siding Spring dumped several tons of material into the Martian atmosphere that could have damaged NASA spacecraft.
- Neuroscience
Brain regions linking odors to words pinpointed
Scientists have pinpointed two brain regions involved in linking odors to their names, with implications for why smells are hard to identify.
- Science & Society
Top 10 science popularizers of all time
Since antiquity, some notable thinkers have served society by translating science into popular form.
- Life
Epic worldwide effort explores all of insect history
A whopper of a genetic analysis fits all living orders of insects into one genealogical evolutionary tree.
- Animals
Just enough fat is good for an elephant seal
Fat affects the buoyancy of marine mammals. As elephant seals get fatter, they can spend less energy swimming and more time foraging, a new study finds.
- Genetics
DNA from 37,000-year-old human hints at early European history
DNA from a roughly 37,000-year-old Homo sapiens skeleton supports recent findings about when ancient humans and Neandertals interbred.
- Neuroscience
For a friendlier zebra finch, just add stress
Adding stress hormones to the diet of developing zebra finches produced birds that were social butterflies.
- Life
Norovirus grown in lab, with help from bacteria
Norovirus, famous for sickening cruise ship passengers, has finally been grown in human cells in a lab, offering scientists a chance to test new therapies.
