All Stories
- Astronomy
Exoplanets once trumpeted as life-friendly may not exist
Two exoplanets considered among the most promising for hosting life may not exist, a new study suggests.
- Psychology
People will take pain over being left alone with their thoughts
Evidence suggests that people dislike solitary thought so much that some prefer electric shocks.
- Animals
Mantis shrimp tune their eyes with sunscreen
Blocking some rays in just the right way creates six ways of actually seeing ultraviolet light.
- Animals
Red kangaroo’s tail acts like a fifth leg
Red kangaroos wield their tails like another limb when moving slowly.
- Psychology
Vocal fry
At the lowest registers of the human voice, a creaky, popping sound known as vocal fry emerges.
- Math
Scientists’ grasp of confidence intervals doesn’t inspire confidence
Confidence intervals are often misrepresented and are commonly misunderstood, even by researchers.
- Health & Medicine
Supercooling makes livers for transplants last longer
Supercooling a rat liver for transplant greatly increased an organ’s survival time outside the body, potentially opening the door for global allocation of human organs.
- Paleontology
Flightless dino-bird wore full-body feathers
Recently unearthed Archaeopteryx fossil sports full coat of feathers, suggesting feather evolution was more complex than previously thought.
- Health & Medicine
Candidate asthma and allergy drug passes early test
By suppressing an inflammation-causing antibody, an experimental drug can lessen allergy and asthma symptoms for months at a time.
- Neuroscience
Autism may carry a benefit: a buffer against Alzheimer’s
Brain plasticity of people with autism may protect them from Alzheimer’s disease, scientists propose.
- Life
Tibetans live high life thanks to extinct human relatives
DNA shared by modern-day Tibetans and extinct Denisovans suggests people picked up helpful genes through interbreeding with other hominids.
- Life
Stem cell papers retracted
Researchers who reported easy method for making stem cells admit mistakes mar their work, and have retracted their papers from Nature.
