Kristin Cobb

All Stories by Kristin Cobb

  1. Chimp Change: Did an HIV-like virus ravage early chimps?

    Modern chimpanzees may be the offspring of survivors of an HIV-like pandemic that took place 2 million years ago.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Missed ZZZ’s, More Disease?

    New evidence suggests that chronic lack of sleep may be as important as poor nutrition and physical inactivity in the development of chronic illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

  3. Animals

    Getting a Grip: How gecko toes stick

    Scientists have pinned down the molecular basis of the gecko's astonishing ability to scamper up polished walls and hang from ceilings, paving the way for a new type of synthetic dry adhesive.

  4. Computing

    Writing faster with your eyes

    A new method for gaze-operated, hands-free text entry is faster and more accurate than using an on-screen keyboard.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Processing corn boosts antioxidants

    Cooking sweet corn increases its disease-fighting antioxidant activity, despite decreasing its vitamin C content.

  6. Physics

    Peer Pressure in Numbers: Physicists model the power of social sway

    A mathematical model of peer-influenced behavior may help explain some unexpected patterns that have been observed in financial data and bird populations.

  7. Not a Turn-On: Alleged X chromosome activator may be a dud

    A gene that helps regulate X chromosome activity in mice doesn't work in people.

  8. Animals

    Slithering on Air: Flying snakes glide through the treetops

    The paradise tree snake flies by flattening its body and slithering through the air.

  9. Return of a Castaway

    Wood-eating shipworms have been forging a costly comeback in some U.S. harbors in recent years, yet researchers say that these mislabeled animals (they're clams, not worms) are a scientific treasure.

  10. Paleontology

    Bone Crushers: Teeth reveal changing times in the Pleistocene

    Tooth-fracture incidence among dire wolves in the fossil record can indicate how much bone the carnivores crunched and, therefore, something about the ecology of their time.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Sleepy Heads: Low fuel may drive brain’s need to sleep

    A new study supports the hypothesis that dwindling energy stores in the waking brain induce sleep.

  12. Health & Medicine

    His-and-Her Hunger Pangs: Gender affects the brain’s response to food

    Men's and women's brains react differently to hunger, as well as to satiation.