News in Brief
- Chemistry
Sweaty, vinegary and sweet odors mingle to make dark chocolate’s smell
Scientists have worked out the chemistry of dark chocolate’s smell and reconstructed the aroma.
- Paleontology
Signs of red pigment were spotted in a fossil for the first time
For the first time, scientists have identified the chemical fingerprint of red pigment in a fossil.
- Animals
Some dog breeds may have trouble breathing because of a mutated gene
Norwich terriers don’t have flat snouts, but can suffer the same wheezing as bulldogs. It turns out that a gene mutation tied to swelling could be to blame.
- Earth
Only a third of Earth’s longest rivers still run free
Mapping millions of kilometers of waterways shows that just 37 percent of rivers longer than 1,000 kilometers remain unchained by human activities.
- Archaeology
Ancient South American populations dipped due to an erratic climate
Scientists link bouts of intense rainfall and drought around 8,600 to 6,000 years ago to declining numbers of South American hunter-gatherers.
- Archaeology
An ancient pouch reveals the hallucinogen stash of an Andes shaman
South American shamans in the Andes Mountains carried mind-altering ingredients 1,000 years ago, a study finds.
- Quantum Physics
Antimatter keeps with quantum theory. It’s both particle and wave
A new variation of the classic double-slit experiment confirms that antimatter, like normal matter, has wave-particle duality.
- Physics
LIGO and Virgo made 5 likely gravitational wave detections in a month
It took decades to find the first gravitational wave event, and now they’re a weekly occurrence.
- Animals
Hippo poop cycles silicon through the East African environment
By chowing down on grass and then excreting into rivers and lakes, hippos play a big role in transporting a nutrient crucial to the food web.
- Planetary Science
Pictures confirm Hayabusa2 made a crater in asteroid Ryugu
Hayabusa2’s crater-blasting success, confirmed by an image beamed back from the spacecraft, paves the way to grab subsurface asteroid dust.
- Genetics
A marine parasite’s mitochondria lack DNA but still churn out energy
Missing mitochondrial DNA inside a parasitic marine microbe turned up inside the organism’s nucleus.
- Archaeology
Excavations show hunter-gatherers lived in the Amazon more than 10,000 years ago
Early foragers may have laid the foundation for farming’s ascent in South America’s tropical forests.
