All Stories
- Chemistry
Increasingly, chocolate-makers turn to science
Chocolate is delicious and may even have health benefits. To make sure there’s enough to go around, scientists are growing heartier cacao trees.
- Agriculture
How to grow a cacao tree in a hurry
Chocolate is made from the pods of the cacao tree. To reproduce this plant quickly for research, scientists use clones.
- Chemistry
Janet’s chocolate mousse pie
The top two ingredients — dark chocolate and tofu — both have a reputation for being healthy. The good news for those who don’t like tofu: You can’t taste it in this pie. It just tastes like a very rich, thick chocolate mousse.
- Animals
Blowflies keep their cool with drool
Personal air conditioning the blowfly way: Dangle a droplet of saliva and then swallow it.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists probe new ways to control malaria
In the quest to stop malaria, one researcher studies the disease in birds, bats and other animals. Another focuses on climate change and human sprawl.
- Health & Medicine
Don’t blame the rats for spreading the Black Death
Popular history says millions of people died of the Black Death in the Middle Ages after being bit by fleas living on rats. But human fleas may be the real culprits, a new study finds.
- Life
Scientists Say: Archaea
Archaea are single-celled organisms that live anywhere from hot springs to your gut. Scientists used to think they were bacteria, but now they know they are their own domain.
- Earth
Pollution from new technologies threatens astronomy
Pollution from new technologies will make it harder to observe the night sky, astronomers say.
- Archaeology
Cool Jobs: Drilling into the secrets of teeth
A bioengineer, a biologist and an archaeologist all study teeth to explore new materials, to grow better tissues and to learn more about prehistoric humans.
- Animals
Jackpot! Hundreds of fossilized pterosaur eggs unearthed in China
A trove of fossilized pterosaur eggs and embryos offer tantalizing clues to the winged reptiles’ early development.
- Computing
Smartphones put your privacy at risk
Smartphones have become essential companions. But they can leak data about you. In fact, the potential for invading your privacy is higher than you might think.
- Animals
Dog wins tally of nerve cells in the outer wrinkles of the brain
Golden retrievers rate at the top for numbers of nerve cells, a study of some carnivores finds.
