News
- Space
Why just being in the habitable zone doesn’t make exoplanets livable
A reignited debate over whether a new planet is habitable highlights the difficult science of seeking alien life.
- Space
A new image reveals the structure of the cosmic web
Newly spotted tendrils of gas within a forming cluster of galaxies support scientists’ theory of the cosmos.
- Neuroscience
Dueling brain waves during sleep may decide whether rats remember or forget
In a slumbering rat, two distinct kinds of brain waves have opposite jobs.
- Health & Medicine
Men with breast cancer have lower survival rates than women
Men with breast cancer don’t fare as well as women. To expand treatment options, the U.S. FDA is encouraging drug companies to include men in studies.
- Life
Gene editing can make fruit flies into ‘monarch flies’
Just three molecular changes can make fruit flies insensitive to milkweed toxins.
- Genetics
Dog behaviors like aggression and fearfulness are linked to breed genetics
A study looking at how 101 dog breeds behave finds a strong association between genetics and 14 personality traits.
- Health & Medicine
Rare eastern equine encephalitis has killed 9 people in the U.S. in 2019
2019 is the worst eastern equine encephalitis outbreak since tracking began in 2003, with 31 cases and nine deaths from the brain infection so far.
- Humans
Human embryos have extra hand muscles found in lizards but not most adults
In developing human embryos, muscles are made, then lost, in a pattern that mirrors the appearance of the structures during evolution.
- Earth
Hurricane Lorenzo hit Category 5 farther east than any other storm
Lorenzo reached category 5 status on September 28, making it the northern-most and eastern-most category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic.
- Humans
Personalized diets may be the future of nutrition. But the science isn’t all there yet
How a person responds to food depends on more than the food itself. But what exactly is still a confusing mix of genes, microbes and other factors.
- Space
NASA’s new black hole visualizations showcase how gravity warps light
Images from computer simulations highlight how the extreme gravity of a black hole tampers with light rays emanating from its accretion disk to create weird patterns.
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Mice fidget. Those motions have big effects on their brains
Unnecessary motion has a profound and widespread effect on nerve cell behavior in mice.
