All Stories
- Environment
Legionnaires’ disease bacteria lurk in tap water
Found in nearly half of faucets, contamination could explain sporadic cases of disease.
- Materials Science
Making artificial muscles with a spin
Scientists have given ordinary fishing line and sewing thread a new twist. When coiled into tight corkscrews, the fibers can lift loads more than 100 times as heavy as those hefted by human muscles.
- Science & Society
Alternatives needed to do-it-yourself feces swaps
Three researchers are calling for the FDA to regulate feces as a human tissue rather than a drug to make it easier for doctors to perform fecal transplants.
- Particle Physics
More precision added to mass estimate of electron
The electron has been weighed with unprecedented precision. Its new and improved mass is 17 times as precise as the previous best estimate.
- Animals
Fish lose their fear on a denuded reef
Juvenile damselfish lose their ability to smell danger when in a degraded habitat.
- Neuroscience
Like people, dogs have brain areas that respond to voices
MRI study may help explain how pups understand human communication.
- Archaeology
Fire used regularly for cooking for 300,000 years
Israeli cave yields a fireplace where Stone Age crowd may have cooked up social change.
- Life
Fins and wings alike share design features
Animals have adapted a number of different ways to swim and fly. But new research suggests that wings, fins and flukes share a couple of basic design parameters.
- Psychology
Lend an ear to science
Pop music hit maker Clive Davis knows a catchy song when he hears one. Now an app aims to define that elusive quality more concretely.
- Life
Questions raised about new method for making stem cells
A January study showing that stem cells can be produced by dipping adult cells in a simple acid bath is now under investigation.
- Health & Medicine
Mesh best for hernia repair
Data from nine studies show fewer recurrences than fixes with sutures only.
- Life
Big study raises worries about bees trading diseases
Pathogens may jump from commercial colonies to the wild.
