A new study has identified the best way to flash freeze living tissue, which could lead to better human egg and stem cell storage. The technique could dramatically improve the odds that frozen, unfertilized eggs could be thawed out and still be healthy enough to be fertilized. That would reduce how many eggs must be harvested, raising success rates and lowering the number of costly, painful procedures... 

Stars shine amidst a luminous, cotton-candy nebula in this new image of NGC 346, the largest star-forming region in our neighboring galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud. The star cluster, located about 210,000 light-years away and measuring around 200 light years across, is home to a group of brilliant stars. Many of the stars in the nebula are just a few million years old. These young suns were born... 

Seen in the right light, yellow reef fish become spotty pains in the tail fin. sciencenewsMembers of one damselfish species use facial patterns of speckles and swooshes to identify the fish species they regularly attack, researchers report in an upcoming issue of Current Biology. These markings show up only in ultraviolet light, says visual ecologist Ulrike Siebeck of the University of Queensland... 

A painstaking, multidecade study of 33,000 individual trees may finally have uncovered the roots of biodiversity. That biodiversity’s origin needs uncovering is surprising because the word seems to be everywhere. But scientists still don’t quite understand why one place has more species than another, or fewer. The traditional explanation — every organism has its niche, competing not with other... 

According to findings that could have been pulled from a deep-sea sequel to Avatar, bacteria appear to conduct electrical currents across the ocean floor, driving linked chemical reactions at relatively vast distances. Noticed only when reseachers happened to test sediment leftovers from another experiment, the phenomenon may add a new mechanism to Earth’s biogeochemistry. “The cycling of elements... 

PORTLAND — Sperm whales sometimes collaborate when they forage the depths, new tracking data suggests, with some individuals herding prey into dense schools while others lunge into the fray and feed. Scientists have long known that sperm whales, like many other toothed whales, form long-lasting social groups that typically consist of females and their young. While some researchers have suggested... 

SAN DIEGO — Not all crime hot spots are created equal, a new mathematical model suggests. For some areas repeatedly hit hard with crime, police intervention can shut down lawlessness and keep it down. But for others, police involvement just shifts the trouble around. “If you see a hot area of crime, you want to know: If you send the police in, will that displace the crime or get rid of the crime... 

Engineered hybrids of bird and human flu strains have proven virulent in mice, raising the disturbing possibility that a natural recombination could be deadly to humans. For years, researchers have worried that H5N1 avian influenza would mix with human flu viruses, evolving into a form that keeps its current lethality but is far more contagious. That hasn’t happened — but the latest findings,... 

The Army wants to instantly get eyes in the sky to watch over a potential enemy. But spy drones or satellites or even fighter jets can be too slow to handle the job. The answer: missiles that carry surveillance drones inside. That’s right. The military wants to shoot off loads of flying, spying robots, using missiles to make for faster surveillance and attack. “ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and... 

The Department of Energy has provided almost $10 billion in loan guarantees for two nuclear and three solar power plants in just the past week. The moves mark a new DOE strategy to finance the large-scale deployment of low-carbon technologies in the United States. The Oakland-based company BrightSource will conditionally receive $1.4 billion in loans for a solar complex in the Mojave Desert, while... 

The Cassini spacecraft’s November flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus has revealed new features including at least 20 more icy plumes spewing from the moon’s southern pole. New infrared data gives scientists the highest resolution temperature map of one particular warm fissure called a “tiger stripe.” The moon’s four tiger stripes are fractures that spew a mix of ice particles, water vapor... 

Pentagon officials have been talking for years about weaning their jets off of fossil fuels. Now they say they’re only months away from producing a cheap fuel made from algae — for less than $3 a gallon. In addition to the Pentagon, several airlines have been publicizing efforts to produce alternatives to traditional jet fuel. But other than a few publicity efforts, there has been very little... 

How all-female species avoid the shrinkage of their gene pool is among the animal kingdom’s great mysteries. Now biologists think they’ve discovered the trick. According to a study published Sunday in Nature, egg-producing cells in a ladies-only species of whiptail lizard contain double the standard genetic complement. They pick the healthiest set of chromosomes, preventing the loss of vital variation. In... 

The American exit strategy from Afghanistan not only hinges on beefing up the local army and police. It also requires persuading “small t” Taliban to leave the insurgency and reconcile with the government. A leading U.S. general is pointing the way to tackling both problems at once. In a conference call with bloggers this morning, Major General David Hogg, the deputy of NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan,... 

A team of mechanical engineering students at California Polytechnic State University is prepping an ultra high-mileage, three-wheeled car for the upcoming Shell Eco-Marathon student competition. If all goes well, they’ll take first place with fuel economy more than 13 times higher than the 230 mpg General Motors claims the Chevrolet Volt will deliver — and Cal Poly car doesn’t even need batteries. The... 

The amount of wind power that theoretically could be generated in the United States tripled in the newest assessment of the nation’s wind resources. Current wind technology deployed in nonenvironmentally protected areas could generate 37,000,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year, according to the new analysis conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and consulting firm AWS Truewind.... 

Cellphone conversations don’t just interfere with driving. Driving dents the capacity to describe and remember cellphone messages, at least for some of the youngest and oldest drivers, a new study finds. sciencenewsRoutine driving impedes a person’s ability to relay information from a cellphone call accurately to a conversation partner and to remember key elements of that information, say psychologist... 

Longevity is one of the hottest areas of science, but there’s a curious hole in the research: Scientifically speaking, nobody knows how to measure aging, much less predict reliably how people will respond to time’s ravages. After all, aging isn’t just chronological. Some people are spry and nimble in their elder years. Others are afflicted by the diseases of aging — heart disease, diabetes,... 

NASA’s new infrared telescope has released its first images. The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer has returned more than 250,000 raw images. To celebrate its performance thus far, NASA selected four of them for processing and publication. Above, you can see the comet, Siding Spring, which was discovered in 2007 by Australian observers. Its 10 million-mile-long tail is made of glowing dust pushed... 

A fresh look at forgotten fossils has revealed two new species of giant, filter-feeding fish that swam Earth’s oceans for 100 million years, occupying the ecological niche now filled by whales and whale sharks. Until now, that ancient niche was thought to be empty, and such fish to be a short-lived evolutionary bust. “We knew these animals existed, but thought they were only around for 20 million...