News in Brief
- 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.
- Planetary Science
NASA’s Mars InSight lander may have the first recording of a Marsquake
NASA’s InSight mission appears to have detected a Marsquake for the first time.
- Planetary Science
Mercury has a massive solid inner core
The distribution of Mercury’s mass and small stutters in the planet’s spin suggest it has a giant solid inner core.
- Archaeology
Ancient sculptors made magnetic figures from rocks struck by lightning
Carved ‘potbelly’ stone sculptures suggest people in what’s now Guatemala knew about magnetism more than 2,000 years ago.
- Health & Medicine
‘Added sugar’ food labels may prevent heart disease and diabetes
Nutrition labeling changes that highlight sugar added to food or drink may have large benefits for public health, researchers say.
- Archaeology
Newly translated Cherokee cave writings reveal sacred messages
Cherokee inscriptions highlight the tribe’s rituals nearly 200 years ago in what’s now a tourist cave in Alabama.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s moon Titan sports phantom hydrocarbon lakes
Three lakes on Saturn’s moon Titan have pulled a vanishing act, a study finds.
- Genetics
Some people may have genes that hamper a drug’s HIV protection
Newly discovered genetic variants could explain why an anti-HIV medication doesn’t protect everyone.
- Materials Science
A new graphene foam stays squishy at the coldest temperatures
Researchers have now made a material that is superelastic even at extremely cold temperatures, which could be helpful in space.
