News
- Humans
Most Neandertals were right-handers
Right handedness, and perhaps spoken language, originated at least a half million years ago, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Armadillos may spread leprosy
A new strain of the disease has shown up in patients and in the animals in parts of the Deep South, suggesting a cause of rare U.S. cases.
- Life
Half-asleep rats look wide awake
In a discovery with ominous implications for sleep deprivation, researchers find that some brain regions can doze off while an animal remains active.
- Life
Great (Dane) minds don’t think alike
Female dogs react to an unexpected twist that males show no awareness of, suggesting that canine sexes are wired differently.
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- Life
The eyespots have it after all
New experiments may reconcile conflicting views regarding what makes a peacock’s plumage attractive to females.
- Life
Teamwork keeps fire ants high and dry
Scientists get a look at the physics that floats a bug's boat.
- Earth
Volcanic ash gets its close-up
Last year’s eruption in Iceland spit out supersharp and potentially harmful particles, nanoscale images show.
- Physics
Salt clouds relieve some Arctic warming
Sea sprays from increasingly open waters exert a cooling effect in the region.
- Psychology
Why some gorillas go unseen
Attention differences help to explain why some people don't notice surprising sights.
- Space
Dry ice, wetter Mars
A previously unknown reservoir of frozen carbon dioxide could periodically vaporize, thickening the atmosphere and allowing liquid water to flow on the Red Planet’s surface.
- Earth
Ozone loss made tropics rainier
Hole over Antarctica changes weather patterns all the way to the equator, simulations suggest.
