Staring up as cascades of colorful light bloom noisily from the dark sky—that's how many Americans will conclude their Independence Day. Behind the pretty image, however, fireworks rely on basic physical and chemical principles.
The scent of human men stresses out mice and rats, which changes their pain responses and could affect experimental results. Sophie Bushwick reports
The source of the mysterious so-called "bio-duck" sounds in the Southern Ocean is finally revealed by researchers engaged in minke business. Sophie Bushwick reports
Cougars survived the late Pleistocene extinction when other North American big cats became extinct, thanks to their more flexible feeding habits. Sophie Bushwick reports
Exposure to bright light in the morning appears linked to reduced appetite and lower body weight, regardless of sleep patterns. Sophie Bushwick reports
After prolonged periods in microgravity, astronauts' hearts became more spherical, according to scans done on the International Space Station. Sophie Bushwick reports
Master artists' sunset colors are good sources of information about amounts of particulates in the atmosphere when the image was painted. Sophie Bushwick reports
Long dormant moss has been extracted from the Antarctic permafrost, thawed out and revived. Sophie Bushwick reports
Developing a hangover doesn't prevent or even significantly delay the next drinking bout. Sophie Bushwick reports
Tests for bacteria found that stethoscopes picked up more microbes from patients than did most parts of the doc's hands. Sophie Bushwick reports
Brain scans of musicians as they improvised in a musical dialogue with another player showed that the improvisers used regions involved in syntax during production of language. Sophie Bushwick reports
Functional MRI brain scans show that man and man's best friend use analogous brain regions to process vocalizations of both their own and the other species. Sophie Bushwick reports
Mice kept in total darkness for a week saw their hearing improve. Well, they heard their hearing improve. Sophie Bushwick reports
The song of the túngara frog creates ripples in the surrounding water, which attracts unwanted attention from predatory bats and rival males. Sophie Bushwick reports
When turkeys get riled up, their skin can change color because of alterations in the arrangement of connective tissue. Researchers created a chemical sensor made of viruses based on the same principle
On at least one Catalonian beach, tourists remove so many shells as to endanger the beach ecosystem
People who drank vodka with a diet mixer had breath alcohol levels 18 percent higher than when they drank alcohol with full-calorie soda. Sophie Bushwick reports
Gorilla Glass's residual stress can be explained by observing how the motion of individual atoms affects the entire system of the material
Plasma flows like a liquid but has the consistency of ketchup on a small scale. This new insight could help researchers better model the motion of blood in the human body
