All Stories
- Agriculture
Deeply plowing farm fields can do more harm than good
Heavy plowing can impair water’s flow through the ground. The problem was found by “listening” to tiny seismic signals caused by rain infiltrating the soil.
- Animals
Meet Bruce, the disabled kea parrot who is the boss of his flock
With half a beak, Bruce has developed a unique fighting style that has won him top status in his flock, videos and documented interactions reveal.
- Climate
Hundreds of sea level studies have underestimated ocean rise
One widely used “geoid” technique may have missed up to a century of sea level rise — so risks could hit millions of people far sooner than expected.
- Space
A small object beyond Pluto may have a thin atmosphere
A brief stellar eclipse hints that this 2002 XV93 has a thin atmosphere. It would be a first for any solar-system body farther from the sun than Pluto.
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- Science & Society
This evolutionary biologist fuses art into her science
Victoria Glynn is studying how high temperatures are affecting ocean plankton. She also makes art to help communicate science to the public.
- Genetics
Caffeine may dial down genes crucial for brain development, teen finds
Data from animal studies point to a troubling possibility: Caffeine may alter brain development.
- Animals
Like living mood rings, these bees change color when it turns humid
Humidity makes North American sweat bees change color. This trait could be widespread among shiny insects, some biologists now suspect.
- Brain
Imagination is not just replaying what we’ve seen and heard
New brain scans are helping sort out how our brains process imagined thoughts versus real sensations.
- Space
NASA’s DART spacecraft changed 2 asteroids’ orbit around the sun
In 2022, NASA smashed a spacecraft into an asteroid. New data show how that impact changed the orbit around the sun of this space rock — and its partner.
- Brain
Scientists Say: Synesthesia
This is a trait in which one kind of sensory input, such as sound, can trigger another sense, such as sight.
- Oceans
Explainer: What are corals?
Though they can look like rocks or plants, corals are animals. Most are made up of colonies of individuals called polyps.
