All Stories by Daniel Strain
-
HumansCollapsing Coastlines
Gray waves surged over miles and miles of open water, breaking against the bluffs underlying Kaktovik. The tiny village sits precariously on the Beaufort Sea, a frigid body of water bordering Alaska’s northeastern Arctic coast. As the choppy waters inundated vulnerable stretches of shoreline, the surf carved deep chasms into the tall bluffs. GOING… Storms […]
-
Evolution’s Wedges
Look to Texas to see evolution’s true colors. There, speckling the state’s green fields, you’ll find the annual phlox, a flower also known as “Texas pride.” Its petals, a light purple elsewhere, are bright scarlet in the southeast near Austin. This color change isn’t a whim: It’s the annual phlox’s response to the presence of […]
-
Life
Diving spiders make their own gills
Eurasian diving bell spiders, the only truly aquatic arachnids, survive underwater with the help of “physical gills,” scientists say.
-
Genetics
Flexible DNA computer finds square roots
Scientists design a digital circuit made of molecules that may be able to crunch a wider variety of complex math problems than previous versions.
-
-
Life
Your gut microbes are what you eat
A mammal's diet strongly influences what kinds of microorganisms live in its intestines.
-
Microbial mats may have given early animals breathing room
Early animals survived poor marine conditions by inhaling oxygen from bacterial "mines" at the bottom of the ocean.
-
Health & Medicine
Gravely damaged brains have ‘bottleneck’
A failure in electrical signaling may distinguish patients in vegetative states.
-
Earth
Warming dents corn and wheat yields
Rising temperatures have decreased global grain production and may be partly responsible for food price increases.
-
Life
Zap! More fish
An upgraded brain underlies the wide diversity in a family of electric fish, scientists say.
-
Life
Teamwork keeps fire ants high and dry
Scientists get a look at the physics that floats a bug's boat.
-
Crushing Cancer’s Defenses
Twirling globs of white blood cells circle a tumor like a Greek army ready to lay siege. These cells are used to winning — they take down baddies such as viruses and bacteria on a daily basis. But cancer cells are not an ordinary enemy. Like Troy, they set up hefty barricades against attack, often […]