News

  1. Astronomy

    Motion of two nearby galaxies clouds the picture

    The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are not gravitationally bound to the Milky Way, but are relative newcomers passing by for the first time.

    By Ron Cowen
  2. Planetary Science

    Titan: Land of lakes—and drizzle

    A newly assembled mosaic of radar images of Saturn's moon Titan shows what appear to be hydrocarbon lakes and seas.

    By Ron Cowen
  3. Chemistry

    Platinumfree fuel cell

    Cheaper than a typical hydrogen fuel cell, a new, platinumfree cell runs on a "green" liquid fuel.

    By Davide Castelvecchi

  4. Spying Vision Cells: Eye’s motion detectors are finally found

    Primates, like other mammals, possess specialized retinal cells that detect motion.

    By Patrick Barry
  5. Paleontology

    Fossil mystery solved?

    Experiments in a Florida swamp show how aquatic creatures can get trapped and preserved in amber, a form of hardened tree sap.

    By Sid Perkins
  6. Humans

    Mice, Magnetism, and Reactions on Solids

    The 2007 Nobel prizes in the sciences recognized research in genetics, materials science, and surface chemistry.

    By Nathan Seppa, Davide Castelvecchi and Sarah Williams
  7. Health & Medicine

    Moving up the Charts: Drug-resistant bug invades military, civilian hospitals

    Acinetobacter baumannii, a common bacterium, is becoming more virulent and drug resistant in hospitals.

    By Brian Vastag
  8. Astronomy

    Sunstruck: Solar hurricanes rip comet’s tail

    Images from a spacecraft show a magnetic hurricane from the sun severing a comet's ion tail.

    By Ron Cowen

  9. Shifty Talk: Probing the process of word evolution

    Words change more quickly over the millennia the less frequently they are used, a quantitative result that may aid in reconstructing old languages and predicting future changes.

    By Bruce Bower
  10. Animals

    Eat a Killer: Snake dines safely with strategic delays

    An Australian snake kills dangerous frogs then waits for their defensive chemicals to degrade before eating them.

    By Susan Milius
  11. Physics

    Light does some weird math

    Adding a photon to a light pulse then taking one out gives a different result from doing the same operations the other way around.

    By Davide Castelvecchi
  12. Health & Medicine

    Antibiotic improves recovery from stroke

    An antibiotic called minocycline seems to limit brain damage and disability in stroke patients.

    By Nathan Seppa