News
- Life
Researchers figure out how flies taste water
A study identifies the cell membrane protein that flies use to detect water’s flavor.
- Life
When two hyenas get the giggles
Laughs of higher-status individuals are more posh, a study in a captive colony suggests.
- Anthropology
Inca cemetery holds brutal glimpses of Spanish violence
Bones from a 500-year-old cemetery have yielded the first direct evidence of Inca death at Spaniards’ hands.
- Health & Medicine
Bees forage with their guts
Researchers show that a gene helps honeybees choose between nectar and pollen.
- Space
Cosmic magnetic field strength measured
Hints of weak magnetism between galaxies narrows options for how the early universe got its fields.
- Humans
For a rare few, driving and cell phones go well together
Some people do well at combining driving with cell phone use, raising questions about the nature of attention.
- Life
First songbird genome arrives with spring
The genome of a songbird has been decoded for the first time. Zebra finches join chickens as the only birds to have detailed maps of their genetic blueprints.
- Health & Medicine
Putting African sleeping sickness to bed
Experiments in mice find a protein that could lead to a safer and more effective treatment for parasitic disease.
- Planetary Science
Warmth in the dark age
Lower reflectivity kept Earth from freezing under a fainter young sun.
- Life
Tortoise see, tortoise do
Though they rarely meet, solitary creatures can pick up skills by example.
- Planetary Science
Signs of giant comet impacts found in cores
An uptick in ammonium may be evidence of a 50-billion-ton strike at the end of the ice age.
- Physics
LHC revs up
The world’s most powerful atom smasher achieves its most energetic collisions yet.
