Life
- Plants
Houseplants suck up air pollutants that can sicken people
Certain indoor air pollutants can sicken people. But some houseplants can remove those chemicals from a room’s air, new data show.
- Brain
Good dog! Canine brains separate tone of speech from its meaning
Dogs brains divide up the tasks of interpreting words and interpreting emotion. It’s a skill that may have evolved even before people did.
- Plants
Scientists Say: Chlorophyll
Plants can make energy out of sunlight, all thanks to a pigment called chlorophyll.
- Tech
One day, computers may decode your dreams
Scientists are learning how to translate brain activity into words and thoughts. This may one day allow people to control devices with their minds.
- Brain
Explainer: How to read brain activity
Electricity underlies the chattering of brain cells. Here’s how scientists eavesdrop on those conversations.
- Brain
Mice brains hint at how bodies keep their cool
Nerve cells in mice can keep the body cool and may prevent high fevers. The discovery could have implications for obesity and other health issues.
- Animals
Meet scientists who take on the study of life
What does a scientist look like? Meet these amazing women in biology.
- Animals
Bee underfeeds eldest daughter, creating ‘nursemaid’
By giving a brood’s firstborn female smaller portions and a low-protein diet, a mother bee can turn the offspring into a nursemaid for her younger siblings.
- Microbes
Mouth germs team up to boost disease risk
The oxygen given off by harmless mouth bacteria can help disease-causing invaders grow strong and flourish.
- Fossils
These may be the oldest fossils on Earth
Some mini mounds in Greenland may just be the earliest evidence of life on Earth, deposited a mere 800,000 years after our planet first formed.
- Agriculture
Sneaky! Virus sickens plants, but helps them multiply
The cucumber mosaic virus helps tomato plants lure pollinators. When the plants multiply, the virus now gets new hosts.
- Health & Medicine
U.S. to outlaw antibacterial soaps
Soaps with germ-killing compounds promise cleaner hands. But manufacturers couldn’t show they offer any safety advantage. Now the U.S. government is banning them.
