All Stories by Carolyn Wilke
- Science & Society
3-D printed ‘ghost guns’ pose new challenges for crime-scene investigators
Researchers are analyzing the ballistics of 3-D printed guns and the plastic they leave behind to help forensic scientists track these DIY weapons.
- Life
Fecal transplants might help make koalas less picky eaters
Poop-transplant pills changed the microbial makeup of koalas’ guts. That could allow the animals to adapt when a favorite type of eucalyptus runs low.
- Health & Medicine
Marijuana and meth are getting more popular in America, but cocaine has declined
In 2006, drug users spent more on cocaine than on heroin, marijuana or methamphetamine. By 2016, marijuana expenditures had exceeded the other drugs.
- Life
Big and bold wasp queens may create more successful colonies
A paper wasp queen’s personality and body size could help predict whether the nest she has founded will thrive.
- Neuroscience
Imaging scans show where symbols turn to letters in the brain
Scientists watched brain activity in a region where reading takes root, and saw a hierarchy of areas that give symbols both sound and meaning.
- Life
A mussel poop diet could fuel invasive carp’s spread across Lake Michigan
Asian carp, just a human-made waterway away from reaching Lake Michigan, could live in much more of the lake than previously thought.
- Earth
One in 4 people lives in places at high risk of running out of water
An update to the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas reveals that 17 countries withdraw more than 80 percent of water available yearly.
- Chemistry
A fungus makes a chemical that neutralizes the stench of skunk spray
A compound produced by fungi reacts with skunk spray to form residues that aren’t offensive to the nose and can be more easily washed away.
- Earth
Decades of dumping acid suggest acid rain may make trees thirstier
Acidified soil loses calcium, which can affect trees’ ability to hang on to water.
- Life
Mapping how the ‘immortal’ hydra regrows cells may demystify regeneration
In the continually regenerating hydra, fluorescent markers help researchers track stem cells on the way to their cellular fate.
- Neuroscience
A frog study may point to where parenting begins in the brain
Two brain regions, including one active in mammal parents, lit up with activity in both male and female poison frogs when caring for their tadpoles.
- Animals
A deadly fungus gives ‘zombie’ ants a case of lockjaw
Clues left on infected ant jaws may reveal how the ‘zombie-ant-fungus’ contracts ant muscles to make their death grip.
