Life
- Animals
Chigger ‘bites’ may trigger an allergy to red meat
Some people develop a food allergy to red meat, and researchers suspect chiggers bites are to blame.
- Ecosystems
Scientists Say: Understory
A forest isn’t made just out of the tallest trees. Shorter trees and shrubs thrive in their shade. This layer is called the understory.
- Brain
Teens’ cell phone use linked to memory problems
A new study suggests teens who get more exposure to cell-phone radiation — and hold their phones up to their right ear — do worse on one type of memory test.
- Animals
These songbirds can fling and shake mice to death
Loggerhead shrikes skewer small animals on barbed wire and give mice a serious shake-up.
- Chemistry
Don’t flush your contact lenses
One in five people who wear contact lenses flush their used eyewear down the sink or toilet. That plastic pollutes the environment and can harm wildlife.
- Life
Bacteria are all around us — and that’s okay
Scientists may have identified less than one percent of all bacteria on Earth. But there’s a reason to keep up the hunt. These microbes could help us understand and protect our planet.
- Chemistry
Three take home chemistry Nobel for harnessing protein ‘evolution’
New ways to create customized proteins for use in biofuels and medicines earned three researchers the 2018 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: What are proteins?
In the body, proteins act as biochemical machines to carry out the work of cells.
- Animals
This penguin prey knows how to fight back
Scientists attached cameras to gentoo penguins off the Falkland Islands. The video revealed that their tiny prey can sometimes win in a fight.
- Health & Medicine
Immune targeting of cancers wins two a 2018 Nobel Prize
Doctors used to target cancers with a scalpel, toxic chemicals and radiation. Two scientists just won a Nobel Prize for coming up with a fourth tactic: turning on the immune system.
- Animals
Eating queen’s poop makes naked mole rats babysit her kids
Hormones in the poop of a naked mole rat queen turns other females into babysitters for her young.
- Ecosystems
New tools aim to better predict blooms of toxic algae
Scientists across the United States are developing programs that can predict when blooms of toxic algal may occur.
