All Stories
- Life
Domesticated animals’ juvenile appearance tied to embryonic cells
Mild defects in embryonic cells could explain physical similarities along with tameness across domesticated species.
- Animals
That stinky gorilla may be trying to say something
Scientists have found the first evidence of wild gorillas communicating by scent.
- Anthropology
Clovis people may have hunted elephant-like prey, not just mammoths
The ancient American Clovis culture started out hunting elephant-like animals well south of New World entry points, finds in Mexico suggest.
By Bruce Bower - Neuroscience
Heavy marijuana use may affect dopamine response
People who regularly smoke five joints a day had dampened reactions to the chemical messenger dopamine.
- Climate
Windblown dust may muck up regional climate predictions
Climate simulations don’t accurately portray the behavior of windblown dust, which may result in inaccurate regional forecasts.
By Beth Mole - Paleontology
Baby mammoths died traumatic deaths
CT scans show that two young mammoths probably suffocated.
By Meghan Rosen - Health & Medicine
HIV reemerges in ‘cured’ child
The discovery spotlights limits in detecting the clandestine germ and raises questions about whether HIV can ever truly be cured.
By Nsikan Akpan - Health & Medicine
Giving kids a spoonful of medicine: not what the doctor ordered
It’s frustratingly easy to give your kid the wrong dose of medicine.
- Animals
Elephant shrews are, oddly, related to actual elephants
A new species in the group is the smallest yet, with adults smaller than a newborn kitten.
By Susan Milius - Earth
‘Tambora’ links volcano to the ‘year without a summer’
Author Gillen D’arcy Wood links the volcano to historical changes in art, opium, cholera and more.
By Erin Wayman - Animals
New water bear species found in Antarctica
A tiny creature called a tardigrade could shed light on how animals reached the far southern continent.
- Anthropology
‘Kidding Ourselves’ shows the rational side of self-deception
Author Joseph T. Hallinan explains why people believe the darnedest things.
By Nathan Seppa