All Stories by Nsikan Akpan
- Life
Fast and furious: The real lives of swallows
In the fields of Oregon, scientists learn flight tricks from swallows.
- Life
Flying animals can teach drones a thing or two
Scientists have turned to Mother Nature’s most adept aerial acrobats — birds, bees, bats and other animals — to inspire their designs for self-directed drones.
- Plants
Climbing high to save a threatened West Coast plant
A group of scientists hopes to save a cliff-hugging plant threatened by invasive grasses, drought and fire in California’s Santa Monica Mountains.
- Microbes
Vaccines and gut microbes join forces to fight flu
Losing gut microbes weakens the protective ability of the flu vaccine in mice.
- Microbes
Speedy test could improve treatment of urinary tract infections
A new test for drug-resistant bacteria may speed the diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infections.
- Microbes
Magnets diagnose malaria in minutes
A small magnet-based device provides faster, more-sensitive malaria diagnosis in mice.
- Tech
Space tourism’s price tag rockets upward
The “high price” of space tourism proposed in the 1960s is nowhere close to the astronomical price tag of trips today.
- Animals
Bats hunt ballooning túngara frogs by echolocation
Bat echolocation tracks the billowing vocal sacs of male túngara frogs.
- Health & Medicine
Tiny mites are probably crawling all over your face
Two skin mites, relatives of spiders, might populate the faces of all adult humans, according to a DNA survey.
- Animals
New subspecies of Philippine tarsier discovered
Genetic tests settle a taxonomic debate surrounding Philippine tarsier, one of the world’s smallest primates.
- Agriculture
Killer bug behind coconut plague identified
A pest has devastated coconuts in the Philippines, and scientists now realize the perp is not the bug they thought was causing the damage.
- Health & Medicine
New tests screen for lethal prion disease
Urine and nasal swabs can detect small amounts of the abnormal prions that cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
