The Science Life

  1. Agriculture

    Fleets of drones could pollinate future crops

    Chemist Eijiro Miyako turned a lab failure into a way to rethink artificial pollination.

    By Elizabeth Eaton
  2. Health & Medicine

    Riding roller coasters might help dislodge kidney stones

    Researchers took a 3-D printed kidney containing tiny stones and urine for a spin on a roller coaster and found their patients’ stories of kidney stones passing on the ride to have merit.

    By Laura Beil
  3. Genetics

    To study Galápagos cormorants, a geneticist gets creative

    To collect DNA from four cormorant species, this scientist called in bird scientists far and wide.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  4. Physics

    Sounds from gunshots may help solve crimes

    Sound wave analysis may help forensic scientists figure out what types of guns were fired at a crime scene.

    By Meghan Rosen
  5. Chemistry

    Movie viewers’ exhaled chemicals tell if scene is funny, scary

    Changes in trace gases exhaled by movie audiences could point the way to a subtle form of human communication.

    By Cassie Martin
  6. Science & Society

    Biologist Kate Rubins’ big dream takes her to the space station

    Molecular biologist Kate Rubins led a 14-person virology lab before becoming an astronaut. She heads to the International Space Station on June 24.

    By Siri Carpenter
  7. Life

    Studying cheese reveals how microbes interact

    Microbiologist Rachel Dutton uses cheese rinds to study how microbes form communities.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  8. Genetics

    Prion disease gets personal

    Diagnosis of a brain-wasting disease drove a married couple into science.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  9. Planetary Science

    120 seconds in Pluto’s shadow

    A 747 outfitted with a telescope worked with New Horizons to reveal details about Pluto’s atmosphere.

    By Christopher Crockett
  10. Animals

    The fine art of hunting microsnails

    Flotation, tact and limestone all prove vital to the quest for microsnails.

    By Susan Milius
  11. Physics

    Uncovering the science of sand dune ‘booms’

    Mechanical engineer and geophysicist Nathalie Vriend explores noises in the desert that are triggered by sand sliding down dunes.

    By Andrew Grant
  12. Animals

    Inside the roaring sex lives of howler monkeys

    Listening to the intense roars of howler monkeys in Mexico inspired scientists to decipher how and why calls differ among species.

    By Helen Thompson