News in Brief
- Animals
Legless geckos slither using skin ridges
The animal's belly has flat rows of ripples that may help them wriggle.
- Animals
Alpine swifts fly nonstop for more than six months
During a journey of 200 days, the birds eat, rest and migrate without touching the ground.
- Life
3-D printing builds bacterial metropolises
By simulating biofilms, new 3-D printing technique may help researchers study antibiotic resistance.
- Psychology
Reading high-brow literature may aid in reading minds
Think of it as the bookworm’s bonus: People who read first-rate fiction become more socially literate, at least briefly, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Altered wine chemical helps kill cancer
Molecule brings its parent, resveratrol, into cells.
- Planetary Science
Supervolcanoes once erupted on Mars
Giant eruptions billions of years ago left behind huge craters
- Plants
Tiny fossils set record for oldest flowerlike pollen
Oldest flowerlike pollen might have come from an ancient relative of today’s flowering plants.
- Planetary Science
Maps reveal clouds on distant exoplanet
Astronomers chart the atmosphere of Kepler-7b, some 1,000 light-years away.
- Life
Engineered salivary glands keep juices flowing
Organs grown in a lab dish do their job when transplanted into mice.
- Animals
Centipede venom fights pain
Molecule from toxin makes mice less sensitive to pain, may work as well as morphine.
- Life
Immune protein explains skin diseases’ link to infection
Molecule called IL-29 protects people with psoriasis from viruses.
- Climate
Slashing greenhouse gas emissions could save millions of lives
Simulations suggest reduced air pollution would improve public health.
