Research News

This image highlights the outer atmosphere of the sun, called the corona, as well as hot flare plasma. Hot active regions, solar flares and coronal mass ejections appear bright here. The dark areas, called coronal holes, are places where very little radia

Science

Coronal Holes: The (Rarely Round) Gaps In The Sun's Atmosphere

5:21pm September 10, 2013

by Joe Palca

Scientists aren't sure exactly why holes form in the hot and glowing outermost layer of gas surrounding the sun. But one theory is that the dark blotches we see on images of the sun could be the remnants of the (relatively) cool splotches called sunspots.

Queue Listen Now

It's OK To Protest In China, Just Don't March

1:12pm September 09, 2013

by Shankar Vedantam

China runs the largest censorship machine in human history, researchers say. But Harvard studies of Internet postings in China suggest that even vitriolic criticisms of leaders and state policies are not what officials want to censor.

Queue Listen Now

Enough With Baby Talk; Infants Learn From Lemur Screeches, Too

9:26am September 05, 2013

by Geoffrey Brumfiel

Even infants too young to discern the meaning of words seem better able to learn while listening to the sound of human speech than while listening to nonsense — speech run backward. Little surprise there, perhaps, but a study shows that recordings of lemur calls spark learning, too.

Queue Listen Now

Pregnant doctors are less likely than other women to deliver their babies via C-section, recent research suggests. Economists say that may be because the physician patients feel more empowered to question the obstetrician.

Money May Be Motivating Doctors To Do More C-Sections

8:57am September 03, 2013

by Shankar Vedantam

Many obstetricians make more money for C-sections than for vaginal deliveries. In a recent study, these doctors were more likely to perform the costly procedure than doctors paid a flat salary. But when the pregnant women were also physicians, doctors seemed less swayed by financial incentives.

Queue Listen Now

The underlying biology of age-related memory glitches — in old mice and old people — is different from what happens with Alzheimer's, recent research suggests.

A Single Protein May Help Explain Memory Loss In Old Age

3:26pm August 30, 2013

by Jon Hamilton

Age-related fumbles of memory are often feared as early signs of Alzheimer's dementia, but recent research confirms an important difference. The underlying biology of the two sorts of memory loss aren't the same. And the age-related form may be reversible someday.

Queue Listen Now

This young whooping crane is on its first fall migration, guided by an Operation Migration ultralight aircraft. Each whooper in this population wears an identification band, and many carry tracking devices that record their movements in detail.

Wise Old Whooping Cranes Keep Captive-Bred Fledglings On Track

2:40pm August 30, 2013

by Christopher Joyce

A decade ago, cranes that had never before migrated followed the lead of an ultralight plane to learn the route south. Several generations later, old cranes are teaching young birds to navigate that same route. It's a clue that migration is a combination of nature and nurture, researchers say.

Queue Listen Now

An irrigation pivot waters a corn field in Nebraska. Many farmers in Nebraska and Kansas rely on irrigation to water their corn fields. But the underground aquifer they draw from will run dry.

Turning Off The Spigot In Western Kansas Farmland

2:49pm August 27, 2013

by Dan Charles

If Kansas farmers keep pumping water out of the High Plains aquifer as they have in the past, the amount of water they can extract will start to fall in just 10 years or so, scientists predict. That will cause big changes in the agricultural economy. But reducing water use now could help delay and ease that disruption.

Queue Listen Now

Science

Physicists Find New Particle, Look for Answers

10:42am August 23, 2013

Researchers say that they've discovered a new subatomic particle - one that appears to contain four quarks bound together. Physicist Sean M. Carroll describes the significance of the find, and talks about the ongoing effort in physics to explain why the universe is the way it is.

Queue Listen Now

Science

Can Your Car Make You An Unethical Driver?

7:25am August 23, 2013

New research suggests the size of your car effects how you drive. If you have a big car, studies show you may be more likely to break the law. It has to do with posture and how powerful you feel.

Queue Listen Now

A whale shark dives near the surface in waters off the coast of Mexico.

Science

Where The Whale Sharks Go

3:17pm August 22, 2013

by Christopher Joyce

A nine-year study tracked more than 800 of the massive and largely mysterious whale sharks. For the first time, researchers have tracked the sharks' far-flung migration and where they may go to give birth.

Queue Listen Now