All Stories
- Planets
Visiting Pluto
Pluto has long been little more than a dark spot in the sky. Now NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is about to fly by this dwarf planet. Along the way, it will collect unprecedented data on it.
- Space
Students sent instrument to Pluto
The student-built dust counter on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is measuring how much grit and debris orbits out beyond Neptune.
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The accidental experiment at your bird feeder
Bird feeders might seem harmless, if not good for the environment. But the birds native to your area might view things differently, new data show.
- Health & Medicine
How this vitamin can foster pimples
Oh no! Vitamin B12 can cause skin bacteria to secrete chemicals that cause zits.
- Planets
Super-earths not a place for plate tectonics
Plate tectonics build big mountain ranges on Earth. But super-Earths would be too big for such movements to occur, a study finds.
- Computing
Robo-roach squeezes through tight spaces
An arched shell helps a new cockroach-inspired robot move through an obstacle course with relative ease.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists Say: Zoonosis
Sometimes diseases in people come from animals. These diseases have a special name.
- Climate
The heat that keeps on giving
Burning fossil fuels generates heat and carbon dioxide. That pulse of heat is quickly exceeded by the warmth that carbon dioxide traps in Earth’s atmosphere.
- Animals
DNA in ivory pinpoints elephant poaching hot spots
Thousands of elephants have been killed for their ivory tusks. A new study used DNA in ivory to trace where most of the killings happen.
- Tech
This battery stretches without losing oomph
Engineers have made a durable lithium-ion battery that can stretch to 150 percent of its original length. One day it could power wearable electronics.
- Chemistry
Taking chicken off the grill and into the lab
Grilling meat can produce carcinogens. A teen studied how to grill chicken to produce the fewest of these cancer-causing chemicals.
- Earth
Many of Earth’s groundwater basins are drying out
A majority of Earth’s largest underground reservoirs of water are being depleted. These aquifers lose more water each year than they gain.
