News
- Animals
A new chameleon species may be the world’s tiniest reptile
The newly described critters, found in the northern forests of Madagascar, may be threatened by deforestation.
- Earth
An upwelling of rock beneath the Atlantic may drive continents apart
Rock rising from more than 600 kilometers deep at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge may play a more active role in plate tectonics than thought.
- Animals
How a tiny spider uses silk to lift prey 50 times its own weight
Dropping the right silk can haul mice, lizards and other giants up off the ground.
- Archaeology
An ancient Egyptian mummy was wrapped in an unusual mud shell
Commoners in ancient Egypt may have used mud in place of expensive resin to imitate royal mummification techniques.
- Physics
The Milky Way’s newfound high-energy glow hints at the secrets of cosmic rays
Gamma rays with energies approaching a quadrillion electron volts emanate from the disk of the Milky Way.
- Paleontology
This ancient sea reptile had a slicing bite like no other
Right up until 66 million years ago, the sea was a teeming evolutionary laboratory with a small, agile, razor-toothed mosasaur patrolling the waters.
- Health & Medicine
COVID-19 precautions may be reducing cases of flu and other respiratory infections
The same efforts to prevent COVID-19’s spread can keep other respiratory infections at bay. But once we go back to normal, outbreaks could be larger.
- Climate
Ship exhaust studies overestimate cooling from pollution-altered clouds
Lines of clouds formed by ship exhaust offer a window into aerosol-cloud interactions but may overestimate how much pollution-altered clouds cool the climate.
- Health & Medicine
Diabetes during pregnancy is tied to heart trouble later in life
Gestational diabetes may increase a woman’s risk of having hardened arteries later in life, a long-term study finds.
- Health & Medicine
The antidepressant fluvoxamine could keep mild COVID-19 from worsening
Newly infected patients who chose to take fluvoxamine quickly recovered, while 12.5 percent who didn’t wound up hospitalized.
- Health & Medicine
What do COVID-19 vaccines mean for daily life in the months ahead?
Effective COVID-19 vaccines are a ray of hope. But masks and distancing are still necessary, especially with contagious variants spreading.
- Health & Medicine
One-shot COVID-19 vaccine is effective against severe disease
The effectiveness of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine at preventing hospitalization and death holds up against a South Africa variant of the coronavirus.
