Notebook
- Animals
How spiders mastered spin control
Scientists reveal a new twist on the unusual properties of spider silk.
- Science & Society
To combat cholera in Yemen, one scientist goes back to basics
As the cholera epidemic rages on in war-torn Yemen, basic hygiene is the first line of defense.
- Planetary Science
What Curiosity has yet to tell us about Mars
Curiosity has revealed a lot about Mars in the last five years. But NASA’s rover still has work to do on the Red Planet.
- Health & Medicine
One in three U.S. adults takes opioids, and many misuse them
More than a third of U.S. adults used prescription opioids in 2015, and nearly 13 percent of that group misused the painkillers in some way.
- Genetics
50 years ago, diabetic mice offered hope for understanding human disease
Mice described in 1967 are still helping researchers understand diabetes.
- Astronomy
Balloons will broadcast the 2017 solar eclipse live from on high
Astrophysicist Angela Des Jardins is coordinating the first-ever livestream of a solar eclipse filmed from balloons.
- Planetary Science
Earth might once have resembled a hot, steamy doughnut
Newly proposed space objects called synestias are large, spinning hunks of mostly vaporized rock. They look like a jelly-filled doughnut.
- Tech
The incredible shrinking transistor just got smaller
Tiniest transistor, made with carbon nanotubes, suggests computers aren’t done shrinking down.
- Physics
50 years ago, a millionth of a degree above absolute zero seemed cold
Today, scientists have reached temperatures less than a billionth of a degree above absolute zero.
- Animals
The blue wings of this dragonfly may be surprisingly alive
The wings of adult morpho dragonflies show tiny respiratory channels that may support a complex of nanostructures that shine blue.
- Ecosystems
Earth’s dry zones support a surprising number of trees
A Google Earth-based estimate of dryland forests adds serious leafage to Earth’s total tree count.
- Animals
This glass frog wears its heart for all to see
A newly discovered glass frog species has skin so clear that it reveals most of the animal’s internal organs, including the heart.
