All Stories
- Health & Medicine
Taking lab mice back to their roots
Lab mice are incredibly useful for biomedical research. But they are also incredibly inbred. A new study shows that bringing wild mouse traits back could help uncover new links between genes and behavior.
- Materials Science
Nature-inspired camouflage changes its looks with light
Thin, flexible new material steals the color-shifting capabilities of cephalopod skin.
- Health & Medicine
Evidence-based medicine actually isn’t
Demands for evidence-based medicine confront the contradiction that much of the evidence is worthless or skewed.
- Health & Medicine
HPV vaccine protection lasts at least eight years
Immunization shields children from human papillomavirus infection for nearly a decade.
- Anthropology
Origins of Egyptian mummy making may predate pyramids
Preservative mixture for mummy wrapping found on linens that covered the dead as early as 6,300 years ago.
- Agriculture
Killer bug behind coconut plague identified
A pest has devastated coconuts in the Philippines, and scientists now realize the perp is not the bug they thought was causing the damage.
- Animals
Zebra finches go mad with mercury, and other animal updates
Mercury exposure makes zebra finches bold and hyperactive, and additional research from the 2014 Animal Behavior Society Meeting.
- Environment
Fetuses may be exposed to antimicrobial compounds
Health risks remain uncertain as scientists find common soap chemicals in pregnant women and cord blood.
- Planetary Science
To explain asteroid composition, scientists invoke nuts
Brazil nut effect may explain why only large boulders dot surfaces of asteroids.
- Computing
Thousand-robot swarm self-assembles into complex shapes
A swarm of a thousand tiny robots can now self-assemble into complex shapes, suggesting scientists have taken a step forward in engineering collective artificial intelligence
- Animals
Dolphins and whales may squeal with pleasure too
Dolphins and whales squeal after a food reward in about the same time it takes for dopamine to be released in the brain.
- Health & Medicine
Clearing up anatomy with a see-through mouse
A new method begins with a mouse or rat and ends with a transparent body, where details can be visualized all the way to the DNA. Here’s how it works.
