News in Brief
- Health & Medicine
Laws to protect athletes’ brains do reduce concussions — eventually
Recurrent concussions among high school athletes went down about 2½ years after traumatic brain injury laws were on the books, a new study finds.
- Earth
How volcanoes may have ended the dynasty of Ptolemy and Cleopatra
Volcanic ash in polar ice reveal a link between eruptions and the timing of revolts in Cleopatra’s Egypt.
- Astronomy
Measured distance within the Milky Way gives clues to what our galaxy looks like
Astronomers used an old but challenging technique to directly measure the distance to a star on the opposite side of the galaxy for the first time.
- Climate
During El Niño, the tropics emit more carbon dioxide
El Niño increases carbon emissions from the tropics — mimicking future climate change.
- Tech
Watch this cuttlefish-inspired ‘skin’ morph into a 3-D shape
New silicone material mimics cephalopod shape-shifting for quick camouflage.
- Neuroscience
There’s no rest for the brain’s mapmakers
Navigational grid cells stay on the job during sleep.
- Health & Medicine
In many places around the world, obesity in kids is on the rise
The last 40 years saw a big leap in obesity among children, totaling an estimated 124 million boys and girls in 2016.
- Genetics
We’re more Neandertal than we thought
Neandertals contributed more to human traits than previously thought.
- Archaeology
Europe’s Stone Age fishers used beeswax to make a point
Late Stone Age Europeans made spears with beeswax adhesive.
- Paleontology
A baby ichthyosaur’s last meal revealed
A new look at an old fossil shows that some species of baby ichthyosaurs may have dined on squid.
- Environment
Radioactive material from Fukushima disaster turns up in a surprising place
Radioactive cesium is reaching the ocean through salty groundwater.
- Oceans
Castaway critters rafted to U.S. shores aboard Japan tsunami debris
Researchers report finding 289 living Japanese marine species that washed up on American shores on debris from the 2011 East Japan earthquake and tsunami.
