Ecosystems
When animals invade human spaces
‘Feral Cities’ explores the wildlife living amongst us, sometimes noticed and sometimes not.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Planetary Science
Titan’s vast seas may drive methane cycle
A phenomenon similar to Earth’s hydrological cycle on Saturn’s largest moon Titan may create different lake compositions, similar to the salinity difference between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
Notebook
Life
Insulin-suppressing hormone discovered
A newly discovered hormone suppresses insulin production and secretion in fruit flies and maybe in humans.
Features
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Mapping aggression circuits in the brain
Using optogenetics and other techniques, scientists are tracing connections to and from the brain’s aggression command center.
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Sam Ting tries to expose dark matter’s mysteries
Particle physicist Sam Ting is applying a meticulous approach to analyzing positrons in space, testing whether they can reveal clues about dark matter.
More Stories from the March 21, 2015 issue
- Neuroscience
With good timing, experiences can rewire old brains
New experiences can rewire old brains — but the timing has to be just right.
- Neuroscience
Shots of brain cells restore learning, memory in rats
Scientists healed damage caused to rats’ brains from radiation by injecting cells that replenish the insulation on neurons.
- Neuroscience
A brain at rest offers clues to Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s
PET scans reveal that the breakdown of brain networks differs in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
- Astronomy
Stellar nursery gives birth to quadruplets
Four young stars, still in their cocoons, show that binary and other multiple star systems form together.
- Animals
When you’re happy and you show it, dogs know it
A new test using pictures of halves of human faces challenges dogs’ abilities to read people’s emotions.
- Oceans
On East Coast, sea levels lean southward
On North America’s East Coast, sea levels tilt slightly downward to the north, new research finds.
- Planetary Science
Enceladus ocean may resemble Antarctic lake
The pH of a subsurface sea on a moon of Saturn resembles an ice-covered lake in Antarctica where microbial mats thrive.
- Genetics
For penguins, it’s a matter of no taste
Penguins lack taste genes for bitter, sweet and umami.
- Ecosystems
Fooled you! Whirling tails of luna moths deflect bat attacks
Luna moths can use their tails to reflect the echolocation pings of bats, tricking the predators into striking the tails instead of less expendable body parts.
- Genetics
Catalog of DNA modifications produces surprises
A map of chemical modifications of DNA and its associated proteins shows how the genome changes during development and disease.
- Cosmology
The past according to Planck: Cosmologists got a lot right
New results from the Planck satellite largely support cosmologists’ theories, but leave the door open for new discoveries.
- Ecosystems
Bluebird moms inadvertently fuel wars between species
Extra hormones delivered to eggs holding sons in tough times end up driving one bluebird species to chase off another
- Psychology
Gene variant may foretell success in program for at-risk kids
Disruptive children with DNA twist show biggest turnaround with 10-year intervention.
- Earth
Steam bubbles carry gold and sulfur up from Earth’s depths
Dense blends of metals and sulfur get a ride to the surface on water vapor bubbles.
- Health & Medicine
Early peanut exposure can reduce likelihood of allergy
In many infants at risk of developing a peanut allergy, early and steady exposure to peanut butter prevents it, a new study finds.
- Paleontology
Hippo history extracted from fossil teeth found in Kenya
Fossilized teeth from the newly identified Epirigenys lokonensis, an ancestor of the hippopotamus, are filling in some of the mammoth mammal’s history.
- Quantum Physics
Physicists double their teleportation power
In a teleportation first, physicists transfer two quantum properties from one photon to another.
- Anthropology
Wheat reached England before farming
European hunter-gatherers may have traded for agricultural products 8,000 years ago.
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- Astronomy
Planet collisions may have rearranged crowded solar systems
Solar systems discovered by Kepler with just one or two worlds may be remnants of planet families that were once far more crowded.
- Genetics
Protein comparisons proposed in 1960s for tracking evolution
In 1965, two scientists spotted molecular signatures of primate divergence. The tool became widespread for studying evolution – and one researcher’s career ended in crime.
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- Animals
Lemurs expected to lose much of their ranges this century
As the climate warms, Madagascar’s little primates will lose habitat, threatening some with extinction.
- Health & Medicine
Teens have higher anaphylaxis risk than younger kids
Adolescents may be more apt to experience an extreme allergic reaction than younger children, researchers report.
- Agriculture
Cage free isn’t good enough for livestock, ‘The Modern Savage’ argues
Even on a small farm, life can be brutal for animals, historian and animal rights advocate says in new book.
- Astronomy
Closest star approach to the sun
Astronomers discover a binary system that made the closest known flyby of the sun.
