All Stories
- 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.
- Science & Society
Asteroids closer to home may get us to Mars
NASA should abandon its attempt to bring a space rock into lunar orbit and instead scrutinize ones already whizzing by Earth, one scientist argues.
- Life
A little good news for giant tortoises in the Galapagos
The giant tortoise population on the Galapagos island of Española is on the rebound, but there are still concerns about other markers of conserving the endangered species.
