News

Animals

Here’s what narwhals sound like underwater

Scientists eavesdropped while narwhals clicked and buzzed. The work could help pinpoint how the whales may react to more human noise in the Arctic.

Climate

Antarctica has lost about 3 trillion metric tons of ice since 1992

Antarctica’s rate of ice loss has sped up since 1992 — mostly in the last five years, raising global sea level by almost 8 millimeters on average.

Environment

Sunshine is making Deepwater Horizon oil stick around

Sunlight created oxygen-rich oil by-products that are still hanging around eight years after the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Astronomy

The sun shrinks a teensy bit when it’s feeling active

The radius of the sun gets slightly smaller during periods of high solar activity, researchers say.

Health & Medicine

Kids with food allergies are twice as likely to have autism

Children with food allergies are more likely to have autism than kids without, a study finds. But that doesn’t mean a child will develop the disorder.

Archaeology

This theory suggests few workers were needed to cap Easter Island statues

A small workforce may have put huge stones on the heads of Easter Island statues.

Animals

Bees join an exclusive crew of animals that get the concept of zero

Honeybees can pass a test of ranking ‘nothing’ as less than one.

Planetary Science

Curiosity finds that Mars’ methane changes with the seasons

The Curiosity rover found seasonally changing methane in Mars’ atmosphere and more signs of organic molecules in an ancient lake bed.

Genetics

Why using genetic genealogy to solve crimes could pose problems

Rules governing how police can use DNA searches in genealogy databases aren’t clear, raising civil rights and privacy concerns.

Animals

In a conservation catch-22, efforts to save quolls might endanger them

After 13 generations isolated from predators, the endangered northern quoll lost its fear of them.

Climate

Tropical cyclones have slowed over the last 70 years

Tropical cyclones are moving 10 percent slower, on average, than they did in the mid-20th century, potentially making them more dangerous.

Particle Physics

If real, dark fusion could help demystify this physics puzzle

Fusing dark matter particles might explain why galaxy cores have evenly distributed dark matter.