Animals

Dr. Evan Los with one of his patients, Sophia, and her diabetes dog St. Nick.

Can Diabetes Alert Dogs Help Sniff Out Low Blood Sugar?

12:53pm July 29, 2016

by Miriam E. Tucker

Trained dogs are increasingly being used to help people with diabetes detect hypoglycemia. One study finds the dogs can indeed do that, but aren't as reliable as a continuous glucose monitor.

Scientists from the Nautilus exploration vessel found this bright purple orb near California's Channel Islands.

Sea Slug? Disco Ball? Beautiful Deep-Sea Purple Blob Puzzles Scientists

5:18pm July 28, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

"I have no idea. I can't even hazard a guess to phylum," one scientist says. The curious orb was found and captured during a recent Nautilus expedition near California's Channel Islands.

A typical Native American oyster deposit, or midden, dating to about 1,000 years ago. Archaeologists are finding clues to sustainable oysters harvesting in these remains.

Oyster Archaeology: Ancient Trash Holds Clues To Sustainable Harvesting

7:00am July 28, 2016

by Natalie Jacewicz

Modern-day oyster populations in the Chesapeake are dwindling, but a multi-millennia archaeological survey shows that wasn't always the case. Native Americans harvested the shellfish sustainably.

World News

Call It A Cat And Cat Game

5:16am July 28, 2016

Larry, 10 Downing Street's mouser, and Palmerston, the Foreign Office cat, were caught brawling. Then Palmerston snuck into the premier's offices. Authorities intervened, saving Larry further injury.

In 2004 Reid Brewer of the University of Alaska Southeast measured an unusual beaked whale that turned up dead in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. A tissue sample from the carcass later showed that the whale was one of the newly identified species.

Mysterious And Known As The 'Raven': Scientists Identify New Whale Species

8:11pm July 27, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

"There have been a lot of people out there surveying whales for a long time and never come across this," a researcher says. But Japanese fishermen have told stories about this dark whale for years.

'Nose-y' Bacteria Could Yield A New Way To Fight Infection

3:38pm July 27, 2016

by Carolyn Beans

The search for lifesaving antibiotics is on. Scientists have turned up one promising candidate in an unlikely place — the human nose.

Four sheep cloned from the same genetic material as Dolly roam the paddocks in Nottingham, England.

'Sister Clones' Of Dolly The Sheep Are Alive And Kicking

6:13pm July 26, 2016

by Rae Ellen Bichell

Dolly, the first cloned mammal, had early arthritis and died young, raising concerns that clones age prematurely. But a study confirms the sheep's four sister clones are healthy and aging well.

Queue Listen Now

Parkinson's disease, smoking, certain head injuries and even normal aging can influence our sense of smell. But certain patterns of loss in the ability to identify odors seem pronounced in Alzheimer's, researchers say.

A Sniff Test For Alzheimer's Checks For The Ability To Identify Odors

4:25pm July 26, 2016

by Jon Hamilton

New research suggests it may be possible to spot people in the early stages of Alzheimer's by testing their ability to recognize fragrances. The goal is a quick and inexpensive screening test.

Larry Is One Lucky Lobster

5:21am July 26, 2016

A lobster was saved from being someone's dinner at a Florida restaurant after news of his nearly 15-pound size blew up on social media. Now, Larry the Lobster is headed to the Maine State Aquarium.

At Ulva Island Bird Sanctuary on Stewart Island, New Zealand, a sign warned visitors in 2008 to check their bags. The fight against invasive predators continues.

World News

Call The Pied Piper: New Zealand Wants To Get Rid Of Its Rats. All Of Them

5:47pm July 25, 2016

by Camila Domonoske

For decades, New Zealand has tried to reduce the populations of destructive, non-native predators. Now the country has a more ambitious goal: eliminating invasive rats, stoats and possums by 2050.