News in Brief
- Planetary Science
Neptune’s smallest moon may be a chip off another moon
Neptune’s tiniest moon probably formed when a comet hit a larger moon.
- Neuroscience
Brain cells combine place and taste to make food maps
A select group of brain cells responds to both flavor and location, a specialty that may help an animal find the next good meal.
- Archaeology
Tooth plaque shows drinking milk goes back 3,000 years in Mongolia
The hardened plaque on teeth is helping scientists trace the history of dairying in Mongolia.
- Tech
A new 2-D material uses light to quickly and safely purify water
A newly designed material uses only light to speedily remove 99.9999 percent of microbes from water.
- Earth
Greenland may have another massive crater hiding under its ice
There may be yet another large crater buried beneath Greenland’s ice sheet. But it’s probably not related to the first one found last year.
- Astronomy
Ultima Thule is shaped like two lumpy pancakes
Scientists are rethinking the shape of the space rock, once thought to be a snowman.
- Health & Medicine
Pills equipped with tiny needles can inject a body from the inside
High-tech pills equipped with medicinal needles could administer painless shots inside the body.
- Health & Medicine
In some cases, getting dengue may protect against Zika
A Zika outbreak in a Brazilian slum suggests that the timing of dengue infections may matter for protection against Zika.
- Animals
How black soldier fly larvae can demolish a pizza so fast
When gorging together, fly larvae create a living fountain that whooshes slowpokes up and away.
- Planetary Science
A basketball-sized rock hit the moon during the last lunar eclipse
Professional and amateur astronomers joined forces to analyze the impact.
- Physics
Laser light can contain intricate, beautiful fractals
Fractals show up in cauliflower, seashells and now — lasers.
- Science & Society
NSF science research funds are flowing again after the shutdown
Assessing the scope of the shutdown’s impact on NSF-funded science will be a long process.
