News
- Astronomy
Postcards from the edge
New data about the edge of the solar system offer surprises about how the sun interacts with our galaxy.
By Ron Cowen - Animals
Mighty mites
Mites that were thought to be parasites to their host wasps turn out to be bodyguards, attacking intruders.
- Physics
Layers in a Stradivarius
Slight differences in the wood from which violins are made might be what distinguishes a mellow-toned Stradivarius from an ordinary instrument.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Surviving HIV
Since the development in the mid-1990s of a state-of-the-art drug cocktail for HIV, patient survival has extended dramatically, a new study shows.
By Nathan Seppa - Animals
Live fast, die young
With a lifespan of just five months, the chameleon Furcifer labordi leads a briefer life than any other land-dwelling vertebrate.
By Amy Maxmen - Math
Optimizing leafy networks
Scientists reveal a mathematical principle underlying the arrangement of leaf veins in plant species.
- Health & Medicine
Journey to the center of the brain
New map of brain's anatomy reveals communication hub that corresponds to an area active when the mind wanders.
- Psychology
Woman knob twists
People nonverbally impose a specific order on descriptions of witnessed events, a tendency that may influence the structure of new languages, a new study suggests.
By Bruce Bower - Animals
Whaling, to be announced
The 60th meeting of the International Whaling Commission defers voting on deadlocked issues
By Susan Milius - Space
School teacher spots green blob
Mystery object appears to be a starless dwarf galaxy.
By Janet Raloff - Ecosystems
Ecosystem engineers
Nonnative earthworms are deliberately burying ragweed seeds, enhancing the weed’s growth, researchers report.
- Chemistry
Quantifying the “gene for” fallacy
Looking at one gene at a time misses about a third of the genes that contribute to the way a cell functions, scientists say.