Astronomy
Illuminating a dark universe
The film "Dark Universe" compresses a century of discovery into a crisp, comprehensible half hour.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Animals
Narwhal has the strangest tooth in the sea
Sometimes called the unicorn of the sea, the male narwhal’s tusk is actually a tooth. Narwhals detect changes in water salinity using only these tusks, a new study finds.
Notebook
Paleontology
Loblolly sets record for biggest genome
At 20 billion base pairs, the loblolly pine is the largest genome sequenced to date.
Features
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Written in bone
Researchers are reconstructing the migrations that carried agriculture into Europe by analyzing DNA from the skeletons of early farmers and the people they displaced.
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The ice of a distant moon
Jupiter’s moon Europa hides a liquid ocean, and conceivably life, under kilometers of ice. The challenge for engineers is how to penetrate that frozen barrier with technology that can be launched into space and operated remotely.
More Stories from the May 17, 2014 issue
- Health & Medicine
Celiac disease linked to heart problems
Inflammation may explain the link between celiac disease, a digestive disorder, and coronary artery disease.
- Neuroscience
Brain’s growth, networks unveiled in new maps
Two large-scale efforts describe human and mouse brains in detail.
- Neuroscience
Paralyzed mouse legs move with burst of light
Neural patch makes leg muscles twitch in paralyzed mice when blue light shines.
- Earth
Tiny minerals may have shaped Earth’s first plate boundaries
Simulations link weakened rock minerals to the origin of plate tectonics on Earth.
- Paleontology
La Brea Tar Pits yield exquisite Ice Age bees
Ancient bee pupae snug in leafy nest give clues to Pleistocene climate.
- Astronomy
Neutrinos from space rain down from all directions
Using Earth as a filter, scientists detect thousands of neutrinos from beyond the solar system.
- Life
In a crisis, fruit flies do stunt turns
An elaborate monitoring system reveals that fruit flies can execute sophisticated flying maneuvers in the face of danger.
- Cosmology
Galaxy’s gamma-ray glow may expose dark matter
An excess of gamma rays at the center of the Milky Way could be a signature of dark matter.
- Genetics
Five mutations could make bird flu spread easily
Handful of alterations can turn H5N1 bird flu into virus that infects ferrets through the air.
- Particle Physics
Exotic particle packs a foursome of quarks
Tetraquarks could help physicists understand the universe’s first generations of matter.
- Climate
Reef fish act drunk in carbon dioxide–rich ocean waters
In first test in the wild, fish near reefs that bubble with CO2 lose fear of predators’ scent.
- Health & Medicine
Triclosan aids nasal invasions by staph
The antimicrobial compound triclosan, commonly found in soaps and toothpaste, may help Staphylococcus aureus stick around.
- Health & Medicine
Possible measles drug tests well in animals
Compound that saves ferrets from viral infection might someday lead to measles treatment.
- Genetics
Gene activity sets humans apart from extinct hominids
Differences in gene activity caused by DNA methylation distinguish modern people from Neandertals and Denisovans.
- Neuroscience
Poor slumber is bad for young flies’ brains
A child's sleep deprivation could alter brain development and adult behavior, a study of fruit flies suggests.
- Astronomy
Earth-sized planet found in star’s habitable zone
Astronomers have found a potentially habitable Earth-sized planet around a cool red star.
- Materials Science
Blender whips up graphene
Easy recipe makes large quantities of graphene using kitchen blender.
- Planetary Science
Mountains on Saturn moon may have come from space
A mountainous ridge around the equator of Iapetus, one of Saturn’s moons, may have formed from cosmic debris.
- Science & Society
Anti-leukemia vaccine reported hope of future
Fifty years ago, Science News Letter reported on the promise of a vaccine to prevent leukemia. No preventive vaccine has come to pass, but leukemia vaccines as treatments has yielded promising results.
- Animals
How to milk a naked mole-rat
For the sake of science, Olav Oftedal has milked bats, bears and a lot of other mammals. But a naked mole-rat was something new.
- Earth
Huge space rock rattled Earth 3 billion years ago
An asteroid almost as wide as Rhode Island may have plowed into Earth 3.26 billion years ago, leaving a trace in South Africa’s Barberton greenstone belt.
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- Cosmology
See the sky in a different light
An interactive map lets you explore the galaxy with infrared light.
- Physics
Gravity’s Ghost and Big Dog
Sociologist Harry Collins chronicles the occasionally heated (and often arcane) debates among scientists studying gravitational waves.
- Math
The Improbability Principle
The laws of mathematics and physics suffice to explain a world of coincidences, statistician David J. Hand argues.
