All Stories by Roberta Kwok
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- Animals
Alien carp leap onto the scene
Last summer, Alison Coulter got a big surprise as she piloted a boat along the Wabash River in Indiana. Startled by her boat’s motor, a 60-centimeter (24-inch) carp leaped out of the river. In some cases, jumping Asian carp have broken a boater’s nose, jaw or arm.
- Health & Medicine
Wanted: ‘Smart’ cleaners
Active surfaces will — on their own — help remove everything from insects and germs to poisons.
- Animals
This shrimp packs a punch
Researchers learn a lot from mantis shrimp, colorful marine creatures that possess deadly weapons and complex vision
- Animals
Cool Jobs: Delving into dung
Scientists uncover fascinating secrets through the study of animal feces.
- Chemistry
Secret signals
Animals respond to chemical messages they may not even realize they’re swapping
- Animals
When the nose no longer knows
Pollution can endanger aquatic animals by damaging their sense of smell.
- Animals
Monkeys’ mistake detector
Specific brain cells in macaques respond to fellow animal’s error.
- Genetics
DNA hints at ancient cousins
Scientists find evidence of an extinct humanlike species within modern-day Africans.
- Climate
Iron versus climate change
Metal deposits can promote the growth of ocean algae that gobble greenhouse gas.
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- Health & Medicine
Tomatoes’ tasteless green gene
The tomatoes your great-grandparents ate probably tasted little like the ones you eat today. The fruit used to have more flavor. A lot more flavor. In fact, tomatoes “were once so flavorful that you could take one in your hand and eat it straight away just like we regularly eat apples or peaches,” according to plant scientist Alan Bennett. He belongs to a team of international scientists who now think they know one reason why the fruit has lost so much flavor. Although some unripe tomatoes have a dark green patch near the stem, farmers prefer that their unripe tomatoes are the same shade of green all over. The consistent coloring makes it easier for them to know when the fruit should be picked.
