Feature
- Ecosystems
Noise made by humans can be bad news for animals
Animals live in a world of sounds. Clever experiments are finally teasing out how human-made noise can cause dangerous distractions.
- Science & Society
Big data studies come with replication challenges
As science moves into big data research — analyzing billions of bits of DNA or other data from thousands of research subjects — concern grows that much of what is discovered is fool’s gold.
- Life
Fast and furious: The real lives of swallows
In the fields of Oregon, scientists learn flight tricks from swallows.
- Life
Flying animals can teach drones a thing or two
Scientists have turned to Mother Nature’s most adept aerial acrobats — birds, bees, bats and other animals — to inspire their designs for self-directed drones.
- Science & Society
12 reasons research goes wrong
Barriers to research replication are based largely in a scientific culture that pits researchers against each other in competition for scarce resources. Here are a few that skew results.
- Science & Society
Is redoing scientific research the best way to find truth?
Researchers don’t even agree on whether it is necessary to duplicate studies exactly or to validate the underlying principles.
- Earth
Pumping carbon dioxide deep underground may trigger earthquakes
Injecting carbon dioxide deep underground offers a promising way to curb global warming, but the extra pressure may cause faults to slip or fractures to release the buried gas.
- Ecosystems
Dam demolition lets the Elwha River run free
Removing a dam involves more than impressive explosions. Releasing a river like Washington state's Elwha transforms the landscape and restores important pathways for native fish.
- Ecosystems
Cities are brimming with wildlife worth studying
Urban ecologists are getting a handle on the varieties of wildlife — including fungi, ants, bats and coyotes — that share sidewalks, parks and alleyways with a city’s human residents.
- Genetics
The year in genomes
From the tiny Antarctic midge to the towering loblolly pine, scientists this year cracked open a variety of genetic instruction manuals to learn about some of Earth’s most diverse inhabitants.
- Microbes
The year in microbiomes
This year, scientists pegged microbes as important players in several aspects of human health, including obesity and cancer.
- Science & Society
Ebola, Rosetta, e-cigarettes and more top stories of 2014
West Africa’s Ebola epidemic captured the attention of both the scientific world, and the world at large in 2014, placing it first among the Top 25 stories of the year.
