News

Space

Dawn on Vesta

New image from NASA asteroid mission reveals a relic of the early solar system.

Humans

Mirror system gets an assist

Study finds two brain systems are surprisingly active when an amputee observes a task she can’t perform.

Psychology

Narcissists need no reality check

Masters of vanity know they’re arrogant and disliked, but see own bigheadedness as justified.

Physics

A cloak in time

Physicists hide events in the laboratory for trillionths of a second.

Animals

Baboon bosses get stressed for success

In the wild, the most powerful males reign tensely.

Math

Varying efficacy of HIV drug cocktails explained

Steepness of slope in dose-response curve tips off researchers to importance of timing in virus’s life cycle.

Life

Oil spill didn’t hurt seagrass-dwelling juvenile fish

Long-term effects of early exposure to hydrocarbons remains unknown.

Life

Learnin’ lizards

Underrated reptiles figure out what to do when the old rules change.

Space

Astronomers probe matter in early universe

Smeared light from the dawn of time confirms ideas about a mysterious dark energy permeating the cosmos.

Space

Iapetus gets dusted

Saturn moon gets its yin-yang surface by plowing through a ring of dust.

Earth

Simulation tracks ocean’s missing heat

Climate scientists suggest energy is buried deep undersea or released to space.

Chemistry

Fats stimulate binge eating

Much like marijuana, fatty foods can spur overeating, a study in rats shows. The new finding also suggests possible therapies to combat the munchies.