All Stories
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Cookie Science 13: The deal with gluten
To find out how to improve my gluten-free cookies, I learned a lot about what gluten does, and what other baking ingredients might take its place.
- Climate
Distant pollution may intensify U.S. twisters
A new study of one of the deadliest U.S. outbreaks of tornadoes sees a possible role for smoke. In this analysis, the smoke had come from fires burning in Central America.
- Health & Medicine
Most students wrong on risks of smoking occasionally
Teens know that heavy smoking can seriously harm health. But most, a new study finds, don’t realize that smoking only now and then also is harmful. Data from a survey highlight teens’ mistaken ideas about the risks of intermittent smoking.
- Physics
Sometimes light is not so fast
The speed of light is often called a “constant.” Experiments now show that light doesn't always reach its top speed.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Plankter
Plankton is the word used to describe a collection of these tiny free-floating organisms. This is what you call just one.
- Animals
Shark: Who’s your daddy?
Female sharks can store sperm from a male for months before releasing a case containing a fertilized egg. But almost 4 years? That’s a new record that has biologists scratching their heads over how this could have happened.
- Computing
Don’t hold ’em – just fold ’em
Scientists have designed a problem-solving process that allows a computer to win at a kind of poker. It gives a computer enough knowledge to win against any opponent — eventually.
- Climate
Desert plants: The ultimate survivors
Creosote, mesquite and other desert plants rely on different adaptations to thrive, even when no rain falls for an entire year.
- Climate
Fast sea level rise is a very recent change
Sea levels have been rising for more than a century. But that rise is now speeding up. That suggests that what is driving the rise — climate change — also has increased dramatically in recent years.
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Volunteers scoop poop to learn what animals ate
Growing human populations in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California lead predators to change their ways. To find out how, scientists are dispatching volunteers to scout out scat.
- Genetics
Immunity: Environment can have big impact
A study on twins suggests that environmental factors can shape a person's immune system more than genes do.
- Animals
How birds stay in the air
The sensors inside a boxy device measure the forces generated with each stroke of a bird’s wings. Learning how much force is needed to keep a bird aloft could help in designing future drones that flap, hover and dart.
