Research Stories

Youngtown, Ariz., used to be an age-restricted retirement community, but not anymore. Kevin McHugh calls the change the "unraveling of an idea." --by Melissa Olson-Petrie

ASU engineering students are designing and assembling medical devices for disabled villagers in Malawi. --by Joe Kullman

A new study suggests that the composition of microbes in the gut may be one reason why gastric-bypass surgery is so effective. It also helps solidify the link between methane-producing microbes and obesity.--by Richard Harth

Scientists studying NASA's MESSENGER data have imaged parts of Mercury never seen before. They have found that volcanos played a large role in shaping the planet's surface, and that Mercury's rocks are unusually iron deficient. --by Robert Burnham

Through the Earthscope program, scientists are installing hundreds of seismometers across the U.S. to record earthquakes from around the world and to help them understand what lies beneath the Earth's surface. --by Diane Boudreau

Infidelity is found in all sorts of animal and insect groups, including other highly organized social organisms, such as ants. Unlike humans, however, worker ants that stray from social norms are rarely, if ever, successful. Chemical signals give them away. --by Margaret Coulombe

ASU researchers create intricate structures on a scale almost unfathomably small. Their building material is the DNA molecule, which offers nearly limitless construction potential. --by Richard Harth

Inner core. Outer core. Mantle. Crust. Most of us learned the layers of planet Earth in elementary school. But how do geologists really know what kind of stuff makes up these layers that lie so deep below? --by Diane Boudreau

Say goodbye to invasive electrodes--scientists may be able to use ultrasound to remotely stimulate brain cells. --by Margaret Coulombe

Personalized medicine based on your unique genetic makeup may soon be a reality. New technology could reduce the cost and speed of sequencing the entire human genome to $1,000 in 24 hours. --by Joe Caspermeyer