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Scientists have taken an important step forward in developing a new material using nano-sized magnets that could ultimately lead to new types of electronic devices, with greater capacity than is currently feasible, in a study published today in the journal Science.

Is intelligence innate, or can you boost it with effort? The way you answer that question may determine how well you learn. Those who think smarts are malleable are more likely to bounce back from their mistakes and make fewer errors in the future, according to a study published last October in Psychological Science .

By Ewen Callaway of Nature magazine Many meat-eating animals have lost their ability to taste sugars over the course of evolution. Sea mammals, spotted hyenas and other carnivores have all shed a working copy of a gene that encodes a `taste receptor' that senses sugars, finds a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . An animal with a diet devoid of vegetables may have little need to detect sugars, says Gary Beauchamp, director of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the lead author of the study.

By Heidi Ledford of Nature magazine Three common chemotherapy drugs cause DNA mutations not only in mice that receive treatment, but also in their offspring, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA . The results suggest that the genome in treated mice became destabilized yielding new mutations long after exposure to the drugs has ceased. [More]

The Chasmagnathus granulatus crab leads a simple life. It spends its days burrowing for food and trying to avoid its nemesis, the seagull. But recent research has shown that despite its rudimentary brain, this crab has a highly sophisticated memory

It’s hard to feel a sense of urgency about climate change--it feels so slow. Well, try telling that to the critters dealing with it. Because new data suggest that the climate will change more than 100 times faster than the rate at which species can adapt

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have made advances in better understanding correlated quantum matter that could change technology as we know it, according to a study published in the Nov. 20 edition of Nature.

(PhysOrg.com) -- In investigating the behavior of large-amplitude standing water waves, mathematician Jon Wilkening of the University of California, Berkeley, has discovered that the waves’ behavior cannot be explained as simply as previously proposed.

People with an uncommon form of cystic fibrosis started gaining weight and were better able to breathe than their untreated counterparts after just two weeks on an experimental drug, according to a study published November 2 in The New England Journal of Medicine . If approved by the U.S.

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the laws of nature may vary across the Universe, according to a study published today in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Mobile DNA molecules that jump from one location in the genome to another may contribute to neurological diseases and could have subtle influences on normal brain function and behavior, according to a study published October 30 in Nature .

A decade ago layers of shale lying deep underground supplied only 1 percent of America’s natural gas. Today they provide 30 percent

The U.S.

Evidence is mounting that repeated concussions can do long-term harm to the brain. Athletes who play contact sports are particularly at risk.

By Melissa Gaskill of Nature magazine Heart-breaking pictures of seabirds covered in black crude oil, arresting as they are, can miss the hidden story of an oil spill's impact on wildlife. Exposure to even tiny concentrations of the chemicals present in oil can also cause harmful biological effects that usually go unnoticed, according to a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .