News
- Climate
Climate change might not slow ocean circulation as much as thought
New measurements may call for a rethink of what controls ocean circulation in the North Atlantic.
- Planetary Science
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover weighed the mountain it’s climbing
Curiosity measures gravity as it drives, allowing scientists to weigh Mount Sharp and determine that the rock is less dense than expected.
- Genetics
This bacteria-fighting protein also induces sleep
A bacteria-fighting protein also lulls fruit flies to sleep, suggesting links between sleep and the immune system.
- Animals
Giant pandas may have only recently switched to eating mostly bamboo
Giant pandas may have switched to an exclusive bamboo diet some 5,000 years ago, not 2 million years ago as previously thought.
- Neuroscience
No, we don’t know that gum disease causes Alzheimer’s
A recent study linked gum disease and Alzheimer’s disease, but the results are far from conclusive.
- Anthropology
New dates narrow down when Denisovans and Neandertals crossed paths
Mysterious ancient hominids called Denisovans and their Neandertal cousins periodically occupied the same cave starting around 200,000 years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Chinese ‘tweets’ hint that happiness drops as air pollution rises
A study of more than 210 million social media posts reveals a link between people’s sense of well-being and pollution.
- Planetary Science
The latest picture of Ultima Thule reveals a remarkably smooth face
Kuiper Belt object MU69, nicknamed Ultima Thule, is largely unmarred by impact craters, suggesting the Kuiper Belt might lack small objects.
- Earth
Earth’s core may have hardened just in time to save its magnetic field
Earth’s inner core began to solidify sometime after 565 million years ago — just in time to prevent the collapse of the planet’s magnetic field, a study finds.
- Anthropology
Dogs may have helped ancient Middle Easterners hunt small game
Jordanian finds point to pooch-aided hunting of small prey around 11,500 years ago, offering new clues into dog domestication in the Middle East.
- Animals
Male birds’ sexy songs may not advertise their brains after all
A biologist backs off an idea he studied for years that the mastery of birdsong is a sign of bird smarts.
- Health & Medicine
Lack of sleep is tied to increases in two Alzheimer’s proteins
In people and mice deprived of sleep, researchers found an increase in tau, a protein involved in Alzheimer’s disease, in the fluid bathing the brain.
