Life
- Animals
This parasite makes wolves more likely to become leaders
Gray wolves infected with Toxoplasma gondii make riskier decisions. This makes them more likely to become pack leaders or strike out on their own.
- Microbes
Mouth-crawling superbugs cause severe cavities in kids
In kids with severe tooth decay, fungi and bacteria team up to create superorganisms that can crawl across teeth.
- Chemistry
Explainer: All about carbon dioxide
Animals and other life on Earth exhale carbon dioxide, which plants use for photosynthesis. But too much of this gas can perturb Earth’s climate.
- Fossils
Armored dinos may have used tail clubs to bash each other
Broken spikes on a fossil dino’s sides are consistent with the armored beast having received a mighty blow from another ankylosaur’s tail club.
- Animals
Tiny bumps on polar bear paws help them get traction on snow
Super-small structures on the Arctic animals’ paws might offer extra friction that keeps them from slipping on snow, a new study concludes.
- Plants
Why dandelions are so good at widely spreading their seeds
Individual seeds on a dandelion release most easily in response to winds from a specific direction. As the wind shifts, this scatters the seeds widely.
- Health & Medicine
Toddler now thrives after prenatal treatment for a genetic disease
Ayla was treated before birth for the rare, life-threatening Pompe disease. Now a thriving 16-month-old toddler, her treatments will still need to continue.
- Fossils
Let’s learn about pterosaurs
These ancient flying reptiles were not dinosaurs, but they were close relatives.
- Brain
Playing video games may improve your memory and attention
The biggest research study of its kind finds that video gamers perform better on some mental tasks than nongamers do.
- Chemistry
Forensic scientists are gaining an edge on crime
Advances in forensic science are helping to recover invisible fingerprints and identify missing people from bits of tissue or bone.
- Animals
Study finds big drop in animal populations since 1970
But the same thing is not happening throughout the kingdom. For instance, more than half of vertebrate populations are stable or increasing.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists Say: Infection
Infections range from mild illnesses, such as the common cold, to deadly diseases, such as rabies.
