All Stories by Stephen Ornes
- Space
Feasting black hole
A huge gas cloud is being stretched, shredded and destroyed by the black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
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- Brain
Nature resets body’s clock
After a week in the wild, people went to bed — and got up — earlier.
- Tech
Sniffing for cancer
New surgical tool offers surgeons speedier diagnosis of tissues that are cancerous.
- Brain
Full moon shortchanges sleep
Lab experiments show people’s sleep suffers for a day or so every month.
- Earth
Fracking waste and quakes
Underground storage of liquid waste from these mining operations can make an area more vulnerable to tremors.
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- Tech
Perfect reflections
Physicists have built a mirror that Snow White’s wicked stepmother would certainly not appreciate. It offers a perfect reflection.
- Microbes
The power of microbes
A living animal is never alone. Its body — like yours — is home to trillions of microbes, or tiny single-celled organisms. Those microbes aren’t just hitchhiking. They can play an important role in separating species, researchers now report.
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- Agriculture
The cabbage’s clock
A newly harvested plant, fruit or vegetable does not turn off — like a switch — and die, scientists report. Instead, an internal “clock” inside the fresh-picked plant continues to tick away. It responds to light and darkness, just as when it had been rooted in the soil.
