Shorebirds gather by the thousands at important feeding and resting areas, but how individual birds move among sites remains a mystery.
Julian Garcia-Walther
Exposure notification systems alert people when they’ve been exposed to the coronavirus but don’t record the information.
AleksandarGeorgiev/E+ via Getty Images
Bluetooth wireless communication makes it possible to track when people have been exposed to people infected with the coronavirus. The right cryptography scheme keeps alerts about exposures private.
Dark matter can be inferred from an assortment of physical clues in the universe.
NASA
Researchers have found a way to speed up the search for dark matter using technology from quantum computing. By squeezing quantum noise, detectors can now look for axions twice as fast.
Only 10%-20% of cacao flowers are pollinated.
carlosgaw/E+ via Getty Images
Microphones on the seafloor recorded life under the Antarctic ice for two years – inadvertently catching seal trills and chirps that are above the range of human hearing. Could they be for navigation?
Military units like the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade shown here are just one component of U.S. national cyber defense.
Fort George G. Meade Public Affairs Office/Flickr
Neuroscientists tackling the age-old question of whether perceptions of color hold from one person to the next are coming up with some interesting answers.
Being a good mother depends on many factors, including the the bacteria in the mouse mother’s gut.
IvonneW/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Whether or not you respond to a certain medicine or therapy doesn't just depend on you. The microbes in your gut play a role in the success or failure of various drugs, including cancer therapies.
North Korea has a long history of hacking targets in the U.S.
Chris Price/Flickr
Sophisticated fake social media personas created by North Korean hackers offered to collaborate with cybersecurity researchers. Several US researchers fell for it.
Making time to connect one on one is crucial.
S&B Vonlanthen/Unsplash
The virus is evolving and new strains are more transmissible. Will the vaccines work against these new variants? How can researchers stay ahead of the virus's evolution?
A person falling into a black hole and being stretched while approaching the black hole’s horizon.
Leo Rodriguez and Shanshan Rodriguez
If you are a sci-fi junkie you've probably wondered what would happen if you were unlucky enough to fall into a black hole. How well you'd fare all depends on the type of black hole.
A molecular biologist at the University Clinical Research Center in Mali works in a COVID-19 testing lab.
Photo by Annie Risemberg/AFP via Getty Images
Is it time for some scientists to turn back to pre-COVID-19 research?
Influencers and women without huge numbers of followers are more effective than others at debunking conspiracy theories on Chinese social media.
AP Photo/Ng Han Guan
The type and amount of misinformation closely tracks tensions in US-China relations. Effectively countering the misinformation comes down to who does the debunking.
Wouldn’t it be nice if one shot could protect you for life?
Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images
You need a new shot every year because current flu vaccines provide limited and temporary protection. But researchers' new strategy could mean a one-and-done influenza vaccine is on the way.
The recent arrest of a Chinese-born scientist at MIT raises questions about the value of international science collaboration and its impact on the American innovation system.
Parent beetle regurgitating liquefied carrion to its young.
Stephen Trumbo
If you think only humans engage in disinformation, think again. Here is a stunning example of a beetle manipulating the odors emitted from a rotting corpse to keep it hidden from competitors.
Presidential pup Major Biden stretches his legs on the White House lawn.
The Official White House photo/Adam Schultz via Twitter
When planes fly from east to west, they are flying against a river of air called a jet stream. These air currents can make your flight longer or shorter, depending on which way you are going.
Far-right groups like the Proud Boys, seen here marching in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 12, are increasingly organizing their activities on messaging services like Telegram.
Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
The microbes in your gut influence how your immune system reacts to bacteria and viruses. A severe immune reaction is deadly; a small one lets the virus win. The right balance may depend on your diet.
Multiple queens ensure colonies have a steady output of workers.
Ryan Reihart
The spread of tawny crazy ants may be driven, in part, by their need for calcium. The calcium-rich limestone bedrock of the lower U.S. Midwest may provide ideal conditions for populations to explode.
Many of the people who broke into the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 carried cellphones, which can be tracked, and posted photos of their activities on social media.
Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
COVID-19 has been found in pets, zoo animals and in a wild mink in Utah. Monitoring wildlife for COVID-19 is important for animals and humans, both of whom face risks from a jumping virus.
A tiny wasp explores the surface of a fig different than the one it evolved to pollinate.
Jared Bernard
As invasive species transform the world, frontline agencies take solace that species needing unique partners can’t invade alone. A new study on figs shows they may find new partners to invade anyway.
Twitter’s suspension of Donald Trump’s account took away his preferred means of communicating with millions of his followers.
AP Photo/Tali Arbel
Banning extremists from social media platforms can reduce hate speech, but the deplatforming process has to be handled with care – and it can have unintended consequences.
B117, the SARS CoV-2 variant that was first detected in the U.K., has been found to be 30%-80% more transmissible.
Juan Gaertner/Science Photo Library via Getty Images
A biologist who studies the evolution of diseases explains what's different about the two new virus strains that have been found recently, and what that means for vaccine effectiveness.
Elementary students initially received polio vaccines at school.
PhotoQuest/Archive Photos via Getty Images
Massive vaccine distribution efforts take a lot of coordination. The rollout of the Salk polio vaccine in the US in 1955 holds lessons for those delivering COVID-19 shots today.
These compounds occur naturally in a number of healthy foods, including legumes and whole grains.
foodism360/Unsplash
Anti-nutrients naturally occur in food and can block the amount of other nutrients available for your body to use. But their effects aren't all bad, which is why they're undergoing an image makeover.