All Stories
- Health & Medicine
Tests hint at trouble with pairing cystic fibrosis drugs
Combining two types of cystic fibrosis drugs may cancel out the benefits of one of the medications.
- Materials Science
Weird materials could make faster computers
Topological insulators could speed up how computers switch between 1s and 0s.
- Psychology
Schadenfreude starts young
Children as young as 2 years old feel joy at another’s misfortune, new research suggests, showing jealousy’s deep roots.
- Health & Medicine
Babies’ brains practice words long before they can speak
When listening to speech, babies’ brains are active in motor areas required for moving the mouth and tongue in ways that produce words.
- Genetics
Airborne MERS virus found in Saudi Arabian camel barn
The air in a Saudi Arabian camel barn holds genetic fragments of MERS, a new study shows.
- Ecosystems
Moose drool can undermine grass defenses
Saliva from moose and reindeer sabotages plants’ chemical weaponry.
- Life
Mouse sperm parties make for straight swimmers
Mouse sperm hunt for eggs in packs, but grouping doesn’t boost speed. Instead, gangs of the reproductive cells move in straighter lines.
- Animals
Elephant’s big nose wins most sensitive sniffer
A genetic survey reveals that African elephants harbor more smell sensors than any other known animal.
- Neuroscience
For rats, a break from stress isn’t worth the relief
An unplanned vacation from stress might seem like a good idea, but a new study in rats shows that unpredictable escapes from pressure produce more strain on the first day back.
- Life
Bacteria’s bodies do whirlies to help them swim
Kidney-shaped Caulobacter crescentus bacteria swim with both their corkscrew propellers called flagella and their bodies, scientists say.
- Genetics
Hints about schizophrenia emerge from genetic study
From thousands of genomes, researchers pinpoint dozens of DNA changes that may underlie schizophrenia
- Animals
Termite soldiers locate battles with vibrational clues
To locate invasions, termite soldiers listen for millisecond-long delays in vibrational distress signals sent out by other soldiers.
