Active Sun at Birth Cut Historical Life Spans
High UV radiation during solar maxima may have degraded expectant mothers' stores of folate, a vitamin essential to development. Christopher Intagliata reports
Stories by Christopher Intagliata
E.T. May Reveal Itself with Vibration
Looking for movement could complement chemical searches for extraterrestrial life. Christopher Intagliata reports
Lyme Helps Spread Other Tick Infections
Mice infected with Lyme and the Babesia parasite are more likely to pass on babesiosis than mice infected with babesiosis alone. Christopher Intagliata reports
Laser Zap Determines Fruit Ripeness
The way fruit reflects and absorbs laser light may be a good measure of its progression toward peak ripeness. Christopher Intagliata reports
Quarter-Million Tons of Plastic Plague Oceans
Based on trawling samples and visual observations of plastic debris, computer models calculate that some 5.25 trillion particles of plastic—about 269,000 tons—may litter the world's oceans...
Sun's Magnetic Field Boosts Earth Lightning
When the Sun's magnetic field is pointed away from Earth, lightning strikes in the U.K. go up 50 percent. Christopher Intagliata reports
Worse Than the Bite
A new study suggests bed bugs can transmit Chagas disease to mice—but the same thing is unlikely to happen in humans. Christopher Intagliata reports
Select Few Can Truly Drink to Their Health
Alcohol's supposed benefit to the heart may only be available to people with the right genes. Christopher Intagliata reports
Microbiome Studies Contaminated by Sequencing Supplies
Nonsterile lab reagents and DNA extraction kits add their own assortment of DNA to microbiome samples. Christopher Intagliata reports
Bats Jam Rivals’ Sonar to Steal a Meal
Mexican free-tailed bats make calls that interfere with fellow bats’ echolocation, causing them to miss their insect targets. Christopher Intagliata reports...
Bacteria Lowers Mosquito Transmission of Malaria, Dengue
Mosquitoes that harbor a soil microbe called Chromobacterium Csp_P have a harder time catching dengue virus and the malarial parasite. Christopher Intagliata reports...
Online Personalization Means Prices Are Tailored to You, Too
Christo Wilson, a computer scientist at Northeastern University, says prices online are "super subjective" and vary according to your past clicks and purchases or whether you are shopping on a mobile phone...
Fecal Transplanters Fish Out Key Ingredient
The bacterium Clostridium scindens , a member of the gut’s microbiome, appears to ward off the hospital-acquired infection C. difficile. Christopher Intagliata reports...
Crustal Chemistry May Aid in Earthquake Prediction
Researchers say chemical changes in groundwater may someday be used to predict quakes four to six months in advance. Christopher Intagliata reports
Dino Devastator Also Ravaged Veggies
After the Chicxulub meteorite, more than half the plant species in temperate North America perished along with the dinosaurs, and the composition of post-impact vegetation changed markedly...
Synthetic Fabrics Host More Stench-Producing Bacteria
Micrococcus bacteria thrive on the open-air lattice of synthetic fibers—where they sit chomping on the fatty acids in our sweat, turning them into shorter, stinkier molecules. Christopher Intagliata reports...
Turtles Not Among the "Silent Majority" of Reptiles
Biologists have identified at least 11 different sounds in the turtle repertoire—but they still have no idea what they mean. Christopher Intagliata reports
Google Searches Linked to Stock Market Moves
When Web searches related to business and politics go up, the market tends to take a dive—although that connection may already be fading. Christopher Intagliata reports
Andromeda Snickers at Milky Way Mass
A new estimate finds that the Milky Way, once thought to be twice as massive as Andromeda, may actually only have half our neighbor galaxy's mass. Christopher Intagliata reports
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Ocean Plastic Particles Could Get in Gills
Sea creatures eat plastic dumped in the ocean, but they also might be accumulating plastic by sucking up tiny particles with their siphons and gills. Christopher Intagliata reports
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