News
- Life
A more fearsome saber-toothed cat
Analyses of fossils reveal that a third, newly recognized type of saber-toothed cat — one that killed by biting large chunks of flesh from its victim instead of biting its neck and slashing the major blood vessels there —roamed the Americas about a million years ago.
- Paleontology
How pterosaurs took flight
Extinct flying reptiles known as pterosaurs may have taken to the air with a technique akin to leapfrogging, new research suggests.
- Space
More problems with Hubble
Hubble’s resurrection is suspended while engineers examine two anomalies.
- Earth
An electronic nose that smells plants’ pain
Device can detect distress signals from plants that are harmed, under attack.
- Humans
Rumors of Gulf War Syndrome
British Gulf War veterans responded to military secrecy by talking among themselves about their health problems. Through rumor, the vets collectively defined the controversial ailment known as Gulf War Syndrome, a new study suggests.
- Life
Fossil find may document largest snake
Rocks beneath a coal mine in Colombia have yielded fossils of what could be the world's largest snake, a 12.8-meter–long behemoth that's a relative of today's boa constrictors.
- Earth
Primordial soup lives again
Fifty-five years later, new analyses of leftovers from Stanley Miller's famous 'primordial soup' experiment suggest that life could have originated near volcanoes.
- Health & Medicine
Bacteria that do logic
A team engineers microbes to perform AND, OR, NAND and NOR logic operations.
- Space
Hubble revives
A plan to switch the Hubble Space Telescope to a backup system works, waking up the telescope after more than two weeks of silence.
- Life
How Tiktaalik got its neck
The oldest fossil with a neck, Tiktaalik roseae, shows how animals developed a head for living on land.
- Health & Medicine
Streamlined polio vaccine fights outbreaks
Back to basics: A simplified polio vaccine works better than the standard approach and overcomes an unforeseen shortcoming in the widely used oral vaccine.
- Humans
Bypassing paralyzed nerves
Implanted electrode helps paralyzed monkey clench its forearm muscles.
