The Discovery Files

Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have found a way to allow commercial tomato growers to coax their plants into producing more fruit without sacrificing the unique and necessary bushy shape of the plants.

A study by Oregon State University researchers to test the impact of nutrient loading on coral reefs has confirmed that this type of pollution from sewage and agricultural practices can lead to coral disease and bleaching.

Engineers at Cornell University have invented a smartphone device that uses the camera inside an iPhone to read your cholesterol level in about a minute.

Researchers at UC San Diego have created nanosponges that soak up a dangerous pore-forming toxin produced by MRSA could serve as a safe and effective vaccine against this toxin.

Researchers at the Ohio State University and the University of Minnesota are developing a geothermal power plant that will lock away carbon dioxide underground--and use it as a tool to boost electric power generation by at least 10 times compared to existing geothermal energy approaches.

People who can accurately remember details of their daily lives going back decades are as susceptible as everyone else to forming fake memories, according to UC Irvine researchers.

Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a password system that incorporates inkblots to provide an extra measure of protection when lists of passwords get stolen from websites.

Mammal body size decreased significantly during at least two ancient global warming events, a finding that suggests a similar outcome is possible in response to human-caused climate change, according to a University of New Hampshire paleontologist and his colleagues.

Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research have fingerprinted a distinctive atmospheric wave pattern that can foreshadow the emergence of summertime heat waves in the United States more than two weeks in advance.

A study by Brown and Yale Universities shows that the brains of humans and rats adapt in a similar way to errors by using low-frequency brainwaves in the medial frontal cortex to synchronize neurons in the motor cortex.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed software that allows them to map unknown environments--such as collapsed buildings--based on the movement of a swarm of insect cyborgs, or "biobots."

Engineers at Stanford University have built and successfully tested the world's first computer based on carbon nanotube technology instead of silicon chips.

UC Davis Health System researchers have identified for the first time a biological pathway that is activated when blood sugar levels are abnormally high and causes irregular heartbeats.

People who are better able to move to a beat show more consistent brain responses to speech than those with less rhythm, according to a study by Northwestern University scientists.

Electrical engineers at the University of Utah have developed a network of wireless sensors that can detect a person falling.