News in Brief
- Astronomy
Two-faced star reveals a pulsar’s surprising bulk
An ultramassive pulsar is frying its stellar companion so that the star shows two different temperatures.
- Animals
The first land-walking vertebrates may have emerged from salty estuaries
Early tetrapods were transitional creatures — not only between land and water, but also between fresh and salty environments.
- Climate
The first Americans could have taken a coastal route into the New World
Alaskan glaciers retreated in time for ancient coastal entries of the first Americans.
- Health & Medicine
Hurricane Maria killed at least 4,645 people in Puerto Rico, a study estimates
Researchers estimate Puerto Rico’s death toll from Hurricane Maria at more than 4,500 people based on household surveys — dwarfing the official count of 64.
- Health & Medicine
Keeping people within U.S. blood pressure guidelines saves lives
Big reductions in heart attacks, strokes and deaths may be possible under 2017 blood pressure guidelines.
- Particle Physics
Dark matter particles elude scientists in the biggest search of its kind
The XENON1T experiment saw no signs of hypothetical dark matter particles called WIMPs.
- Animals
Pregnant bonobos get a little delivery help from their friends
As in humans, female bonobos become helpers for mothers giving birth, data from captive apes suggest.
- Climate
As CO2 increases, rice loses B vitamins and other nutrients
Field experiments add vitamins to list of nutrients at risk from a changing atmosphere.
- Tech
Fleets of self-driving taxis could be choreographed to cut traffic
Hive-minded self-driving cars could curb traffic congestion and vehicle pollution.
- Health & Medicine
Black children commit suicide at twice the rate of white kids
The suicide rates for young black kids are higher than those of their white counterparts, a pattern that flips in older kids, researchers find.
- Astronomy
Maverick asteroid might be an immigrant from outside the solar system
A space rock’s backward orbit could be a hint of unusual origins.
- Cosmology
These stars may have been born only 250 million years after the Big Bang
Scientists find evidence that stars were forming just 250 million years after the universe was born.
