All Stories by Meghan Rosen
- Earth
Bubbles may have sheltered Earth’s early life
For Earth’s earliest inhabitants, a bubble on the beach would have been the next best thing to a safety blanket.
- Tech
New e-skin feels heat, textures and more
Two new developments in electronic “skin” hold promise for making prosthetic devices that can provide a better sense of touch. One gets its great sensitivity from being modeled on the human fingertip.
- Fossils
This prehistoric meat eater preferred surf to turf
For years, paleontologists thought the fierce, sharp-toothed Dimetrodon made a meal of land-based plant eaters. Not anymore. New fossils suggest aquatic animals were its meals of choice.
- Health & Medicine
These bubbles treat wounds
New research shows bubble-powered drugs can travel upstream, against the flow of blood, to seal wounds shut.
- Chemistry
Trio gets chemistry Nobel for figuring out DNA repair
Three researchers have won the 2015 Nobel Prize in chemistry for working out how cells fix damaged genetic material.
- Health & Medicine
Vaping can lead to teen smoking, new study finds
A study in L.A. high school students finds that those who vape are much more likely than those who don’t to eventually take up smoking cigarettes.
- Brain
Smell test may detect autism
A new study finds that kids with autism sniff foul scents for as long as pleasing ones. The finding could lead to a test to diagnose the disorder.
- Tech
Robo-roach squeezes through tight spaces
An arched shell helps a new cockroach-inspired robot move through an obstacle course with relative ease.
- Genetics
DNA in ivory pinpoints elephant poaching hot spots
Thousands of elephants have been killed for their ivory tusks. A new study used DNA in ivory to trace where most of the killings happen.
- Fossils
New analysis halves massive dino’s weight
No question about it, Dreadnoughtus schrani was enormous. But a new estimate concludes this dino weighed just half as much as first thought.
- Animals
Picture This: The real ‘early bird’
Long before dinosaurs went extinct, birds were emerging on Earth. These hummingbird-size wading birds are the earliest known ancestors of today’s birds.
- Environment
Soot fouls subway stations — and maybe lungs
Soot levels in stations for New York City’s electric subway trains exceed the levels outdoors, a new study finds. The underground source of this black carbon: maintenance trains that share the tracks with subway trains. Breathing soot can aggravate asthma and other lung disease.
