News
-
Lamprey cyborg sees the light and responds
Researchers have paired the brain of a sea lamprey with a small robot that can detect and move around in response to light.
- Health & Medicine
Lithium increases gray matter in the brain
Used for decades to treat manic depression, lithium may stimulate the production of new brain cells, thus raising hope that it can treat strokes, Alzheimer's disease, and other conditions that kill brain cells.
-
Psst. This fly’s ears can rival a cat’s
The unusual eardrums of a tiny parasitic fly turn out to rival cats', owls', and people's abilities to pinpoint the origin of a sound.
- Archaeology
Massive Fishery Resurfaces in Amazon
Native groups in an Amazonian region of Bolivia built a large-scale fishery and other earthworks at least 300 years ago, before the Spanish conquest.
- Paleontology
Fossil Fingerprints: Rare earths tie bones to burial ground
The soil in which fossilization occurs leaves a chemical imprint on the bones, suggesting that scientists can use this soil signature to identify more precisely a fossil's original home.
-
Bubble Trouble: Mad cow proteins may hitch a ride between cells
Prions, the proteins behind mad cow disease, may travel between cells in bubbles called exosomes.
-
Tuning Up Young Minds: Music lessons give kids a small IQ advantage
Regular music lessons, focused either on learning to play an instrument or to sing, result in small but statistically significant IQ gains for first graders by the end of the school year, a new study finds.
- Animals
A tale of new whiskers
A newly discovered, featherweight tree mouse with an unexpected evolutionary past has survived widespread habitat destruction on the Philippine island of Luzon.
- Health & Medicine
Better Form, Same Function: Liposuction doesn’t lessen health risks
Liposuction doesn't improve the long-term health prospects of very obese people.
- Earth
Blueberry Hills: Utah nodules resemble some found on Mars
Analyses of small iron oxide nodules found within certain sandstones of the U.S. Southwest could shed light on how similar spherules may have formed on Mars.
- Planetary Science
Portrait of Phoebe: Cassini images a large Saturn moon
The Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft took the first close-up images ever recorded of one of Saturn's oddest moons, Phoebe.
- Physics
Teleporting Matter’s Traits: Beaming information quantum-style
Physicists have transferred a quantum state from one atom to another by manipulating a mysterious, atom-to-atom quantum link called entanglement.
