News

  1. Physics

    String Trio: Novel instrument strums like guitar, rings like bell

    A new type of musical instrument, equipped with Y-shaped strings, may be the first of a family of string instruments with unusual overtones typically heard in bells or gongs.

    By Peter Weiss
  2. Archaeology

    Stones of Contention: Tiny Homo species tied to ancient tool tradition

    Controversial new discoveries suggest that our half-size evolutionary cousins who lived on the Indonesian island of Flores as recently as 12,000 years ago carried on a stone-toolmaking tradition passed down from the island's original colonizers more than 700,000 years ago.

    By Bruce Bower
  3. Earth

    Oil Booms: Whales don’t avoid noise of seismic exploration

    Field tests in the Gulf of Mexico suggest that sperm whales there don't swim away from boats conducting seismic surveys of the seafloor, but the noise generated by such activity may be subtly affecting the whales' feeding behavior.