All Stories
- Animals
Beware the pregnant scorpion
Female striped bark scorpions are pregnant most of the time. That makes them fat, slow and really mean.
- Microbes
Irish potato famine microbe traced to Mexico
The pathogen that triggered the Irish potato famine in the 1840s originated in central Mexico, not the Andes, as some studies had suggested.
- Science & Society
Outgoing congressman Rush Holt calls scientists to action
The New Jersey physicist has decided not to run for re-election but is a proponent of scientists in office.
- Materials Science
Jets of salty water make cellulose strands stronger
When blasted by jets of water, nanoscale fibers of cellulose align to form ultra-tough strands that rival the strength of steel, a new study shows.
- Psychology
Stereotypes might make ‘female’ hurricanes deadlier
Precautions may get shelved by those in the path of severe storms with feminine names, leading some to suggest that storms should be named after animals.
- Quantum Physics
Maybe classical clockwork can explain quantum weirdness
Nobel laureate Gerard ’t Hooft proposes that a classical cause-and-effect reality underlies the probabilistic strangeness of quantum physics.
- Astronomy
Kepler space telescope finds first ‘mega-Earth’
'Mega-Earth' has been added to the distinctions that describe exoplanets thanks to a newly announced Kepler space telescope discovery.
- Oceans
Dusk heralds a feeding frenzy in the waters off Oahu
Even dolphins benefit when layers of organisms in the water column overlap for a short period.
- Planetary Science
Do-it-yourself solar system
If you've always wanted to build your own solar system, roll up your sleeves — SuperPlanetCrash is an online solar system simulator, set up as a game.
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- Health & Medicine
Brain’s support cells play role in hunger
Once considered just helpers for neurons, astrocytes sense the hormone leptin and can change mice’s appetites.
- Genetics
How a genetic quirk makes hair naturally blond
Natural blonds don’t need hair dye. They have a variation on a genetic enhancer that dampens pigment production in their hair follicles, scientists say.
