Stories by Sarah Fecht

A rule of urban expansion could guide smarter growth

The humble fruit fly may help unravel the neural underpinnings of brain injuries

A new mathematical model describes why cities have become less centralized over time, and could help urban planners guide the growth of urban areas in smarter ways

Understanding how "familiar strangers" interact could help scientists stem the spread of disease and learn how a sense of community evolves in a neighborhood

New research on song sparrows offers a new take on bird-beak evolution that is more nuanced than earlier ideas based on finch studies

Is your store-bought frog carrying a deadly secret?

A 17-year-long study upends the most common evolutionary explanation of female infidelity

Prestigious award recognizes seven researchers for their pioneering contributions to nanoscience, neuroscience and astrophysics

Differences in developmental timing may have given birds their big eyes, big brains and smaller size

Mice whose sleep patterns were altered had more difficulties conceiving and carrying pregnancies to term. The findings may have implications for women trying to conceive

New research digs up the underlying rules governing the shape of subway systems across the world

Is colony collapse disorder just the visible part of a "global pollinator crisis"? The answer is surprisingly murky. To help answer the question, scientists have created an inexpensive, nationwide wild bee monitoring program

Traffic injuries are four to six times higher in low-income areas of Montreal, compared with wealthy neighborhoods. Researchers find that better road designs could reduce those disparities

Before urban planning, street patterns emerged organically. Understanding the fundamental and man-made forces behind the growth of streetscapes could help guide the development of today's cities

The structural integrity of the foods we eat is often based on unhealthy saturated fats. New research may allow food scientists to remove the bad fats without destroying texture

A look back at Japan's nuclear crisis, initiated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11, 2011

How insect sperm team up to navigate complicated female reproductive tracts

Human eyeballs may have grown larger as populations migrated farther and farther from the equator, an eye-socket analysis shows