News in Brief
- Chemistry
Milk protein a potential flame retardant
Protein found in milk offers a nontoxic way to extinguish fabric fires.
- Neuroscience
Pianists learn better by playing
Pianists’ muscle memory helped them recognize incorrect notes.
- Animals
Chimps catch people’s yawns in sign of flexible empathy
Chimpanzees may show humanlike empathy, as evidenced by their contagious yawning.
- Health & Medicine
MS milder when patients begin with higher vitamin D levels
Multiple sclerosis patients with low concentrations of vitamin D early in their disease have more nerve damage several years later.
- Physics
Shifting grains may explain earthquake lightning
Mysterious lightning before or during earthquakes could get its spark from underground shifting.
- Astronomy
Galaxy drags trail of stars behind it
A Hubble Space Telescope image shows the galaxy ESO 137-001 dragging star trails behind it as it plows through the Norma galaxy cluster.
- Neuroscience
Music doesn’t move some people
One study offers a glimpse into those who find no enjoyment in tunes.
- Physics
Material’s magnetism tuned by temperature
Layered substance may lead to more reliable hard drives in the future.
- Tech
Shining a light on radio waves
A new device detects faint signals by first converting them to laser pulses.
- Health & Medicine
HPV vaccination proves its worth in Australia
A study in Australia finds the shots are already reducing cases of abnormal cervical lesions.
- Anthropology
Human ancestors at West Asian site deemed two species
Researchers see two species instead of one at oldest known Homo site outside Africa.
- Astronomy
Pulsar pulverizes an asteroid
The steady beat of a pulsar may occasionally be interrupted by collisions with asteroids.
