News in Brief
- Life
A distant cousin of jellyfish may survive without working mitochondria
A tiny creature that parasitizes salmon is the first known multicellular eukaryote without a mitochondrial genome, a hallmark of complex life.
- Particle Physics
Antimatter hydrogen has the same quantum quirk as normal hydrogen
Atoms of antihydrogen are affected by the Lamb shift, which results from transient particles appearing and disappearing.
- Humans
India’s Skeleton Lake contains the bones of mysterious European migrants
Not all of the hundreds of skeletons found at a north Indian lake are from the same place or period. What killed any of these people is still unknown.
- Space
LIGO and Virgo probably spotted the first black hole swallowing up a neutron star
In a first, astronomers may just have detected gravitational waves from a black hole merging with a neutron star.
- Space
Astronomers just quintupled the number of known repeating fast radio bursts
A Canadian telescope spotted eight more repeating fast radio bursts. What causes these cryptic flashes of radio waves from deep space remains unclear.
- Humans
Even without concussions, just one football season may damage players’ brains
A group of college football players underwent brain scans after a season of play. The results suggest the sport could impact neural signaling.
- Earth
One in 4 people lives in places at high risk of running out of water
An update to the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas reveals that 17 countries withdraw more than 80 percent of water available yearly.
- Life
Why people with celiac disease suffer so soon after eating gluten
In people with celiac disease, some T cells release immune chemicals within hours of encountering gluten, triggering the fast onset of symptoms.
- Astronomy
In a first, physicists re-created the sun’s spiraling solar wind in a lab
Some of the sun’s fundamental physics have been re-created with plasma inside a vacuum chamber
- Earth
U.S. wells are pumping up groundwater from increasing depths
Around the United States, groundwater wells are getting deeper in search of new sources of freshwater, a new study shows.
- Physics
Increased control over ions’ motions may help improve quantum computers
Scientists precisely manipulated the ion’s oscillations and energy levels, a key step toward building better quantum computers.
- Planetary Science
India’s first lunar lander is on its way to the moon
India’s Chandrayaan 2 mission just launched, hoping to become the first Indian spacecraft to land on the moon.
