News
- Animals
Chimps show lethal side
A collaborative scientific effort offers an inside look at ape homicides.
By Bruce Bower - Physics
Long-sought particles possibly glimpsed
Majorana fermions, which are their own antiparticle, could one day be useful in quantum computing.
- Life
Baboons show their word skills
Monkeys learn to distinguish words from nonwords, suggesting ancient evolutionary roots for reading.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Movie clips help ease drug craving
Images of heroin may prove useful in treating addiction.
- Physics
Insects covered in tough stuff
Locust exoskeleton could inspire new, fracture-resistant materials.
- Life
Molting cleanses water fleas
Losing a carapace means also losing parasitic bacteria.
By Devin Powell - Life
Pigeon navigation finding called off-course
Iron-containing cells that had been reported in beaks look mostly like immune system components, a new study finds.
By Susan Milius - Earth
Indonesian quake passes without major tsunami
A magnitude 8.6 tremor displaced far less water than the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster.
By Devin Powell - Space
Tall, devilish storm skids across Mars’ surface
Probe captures 20-kilometer dust devil in action.
By Devin Powell - Health & Medicine
Why emotions are attention-getters
Strong, direct connections between two key brain centers help explain how feelings can usurp focus.
- Life
Bat-killing fungus is a European import
Tracing the origins of the strain that causes white-nose syndrome in U.S. animals to Europe, scientists show that infection ups arousal rate during hibernation, depleting energy stores.
By Janet Raloff - Earth
Stop-and-go plate tectonics
Early on, ancient crustal plates may have dived deep into the Earth, time and again, giving a halting start to the planetary remodeling process.