News
- Particle Physics
Measuring the neutron’s lifetime from space could solve an enduring mystery
Measurements on Earth show that lone neutrons decay after about 15 minutes, and now scientists have measured that lifetime from space.
- Health & Medicine
The steroid dexamethasone is the first drug shown to reduce COVID-19 deaths
The drug might save one of every eight people on ventilators and one of 25 on oxygen.
- Space
Flat spots on Saturn’s moon Titan may be the floors of ancient lake beds
Bright radio signals from Titan indicate the presence of ancient lake beds in its tropics, a new analysis finds.
- Health & Medicine
COVID-19 lockdowns helped people get more, but not necessarily better, sleep
Two studies report that people began sleeping more and more regularly after countries imposed stay-at-home orders to slow the coronavirus’ spread.
- Animals
Barn owlets share food with their younger siblings in exchange for grooming
Scientists weren’t sure why elder barn owlets would give away meals to their younger kin, a rare example of sibling cooperation in birds.
- Health & Medicine
The FDA has canceled emergency use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19
The malaria drug is unlikely to work as an antiviral and its risks don’t outweigh benefits in use against the coronavirus, the agency rules.
- Earth
Smoke from Australian fires rose higher into the ozone layer than ever before
The catastrophic wildfires in Australia around New Year’s generated a massive smoke plume that still hasn’t dissipated in the stratosphere.
- Animals
Larvaceans’ underwater ‘snot palaces’ boast elaborate plumbing
Mucus houses have valves and ducts galore that help giant larvaceans extract food from seawater.
- Environment
How giving cash to poor families may also save trees in Indonesia
Indonesia’s poverty reduction program also reduced deforestation by 30 percent, researchers say.
- Archaeology
Clues to the earliest known bow-and-arrow hunting outside Africa have been found
Possible arrowheads at a rainforest site in Sri Lanka date to 48,000 years ago.
- Life
Fossil footprints show some crocodile ancestors walked on two legs
The 106-million-year-old tracks suggest that other puzzling nearby fossils were also likely made by a bipedal croc ancestor, not a giant pterosaur.
- Neuroscience
The way the coronavirus messes with smell hints at how it affects the brain
Conflicting reports offer little clarity about whether COVID-19 targets the brain.
