Have you noticed how Nautilus regularly reaches the front page, more often than any other domain, but has disproportionately fewer comments than the articles around it?
I think the length and fullness of articles might make it so people are less prone to leave comments. I only checked on this one because I was curious what others thought of humans using natural compression techniques on language.
I don't think there's anything special going on besides dnetesn reading everything Nautilus puts out and then submitting it to HN.