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Physics

Plants’ reproductive weaponry unfurled

Botanical tricks include adhesion and bubbles to spread their spores into the environment.

Physics

Water not so squishy under pressure

In planets' cores, molecules may not compress tightly.

Plants

Tree rings’ lack of volcanic signature confuses climate calculations

Humans

Technique may reveal where it all began

A new strategy overcomes a distance quandary as it tracks the origins of widespread phenomena — from an E. coli outbreak to a fad.

Humans

Modern era brings death to words

An analysis of books published over two centuries shows how words are born or succumb to shifting social and technological influences.

Life

After a breakup, coral embryos live on as clones

Even modest waves can break apart embryonic corals, but the bits that survive can grow into separate clones.

Psychology

Kids flex cultural muscles

Young children, but not chimps or monkeys, generate collective leaps of knowledge.

Physics

Hydrogen takes a new form

High-pressure studies may reveal a fourth phase for the element.

Earth

Fault’s twists may shake up earthquake forecasts

Deep angles along the southern San Andreas mean future temblors may be stronger than predicted.

Life

When giant fleas roamed

Fossils show ancient insects grew as long as 2 centimeters.

Space

Aura of life captured in Earthshine

Light from Earth reflected off the moon contains the kind of information that could prove useful in the characterization of faraway exoplanets.

Life

Pollutants long gone, but disease carries on

Even without new exposures, various chemicals can impact DNA and cause illness across at least three subsequent generations, rat study finds.