All Stories
- Animals
Secret feather flaps help a falcon control its dive
The pop-up feathers of a falcon act similar to flaps on an airplane’s wing.
- Genetics
Genes involved in dog OCD identified
Scientists say they have identified several of the genes that trigger obsessive-compulsive disorder in Doberman pinschers, bullterriers, sheepdogs and German shepherds.
- Animals
Bonobos feel the beat
Some animals, like cockatoos and bonobos, are able to move to the groove. Studying animals that keep the beat might tell us whether musical rhythm is really widespread.
- Chemistry
X-rays uncover hidden faces in Rembrandt painting
Lead paint under the surface of the work gives away the artist’s indecisiveness.
- Health & Medicine
Project to collect 100,000 people’s medical data
Tracking microbiomes, blood tests and more over decades could provide individual health recommendations.
- Quantum Physics
History affects superfluid’s flow, study shows
The speed to stop the stirring motion can be slower than what was need to set the fluid spinning in the first place, which shows that what happens to the current state of the superatom depends on what it has already experienced.
- Ecosystems
Arctic melting may help parasites infect new hosts
Grey seals and beluga whales encounter killer microbes as ranges change.
- Animals
‘Packrat’ is the new term for ‘really organized’
The more eclectic hoarder species segregate pantry from lumber room from junk museum. The result is more orderly than the closets of some human packrats.
- Math
Goldberg variations: New shapes for molecular cages
Scientists have figured a way to iron out the wrinkles in a large class of molecular cages.
- Environment
How oil breaks fish hearts
Hydrocarbons that spill into oceans stifle the beat of tuna cardiac cells.
- Health & Medicine
Cocaine use appears to boost stroke risk in young people
A study of young and middle-aged adults adds to evidence of the drug’s harmful effects.
- Animals
It doesn’t always take wings to fly high
Microbes, bees, termites and geese have been clocked at high altitudes, where air density and oxygen are low.
