News
- Genetics
A mutation may explain the sudden rise in birth defects from Zika
A mutation in a protein that helps Zika exit cells may play a big role in microcephaly.
- Climate
Tropical forests have flipped from sponges to sources of carbon dioxide
Analyses of satellite images suggest that degraded forests now release more carbon than they store.
- Physics
Trio of detectors tracks gravitational waves to their home
LIGO and Virgo spot spacetime ripples in their first joint detection.
- Tech
Origami outfits help these bots change tasks swiftly
These robots change shape by slipping into different origami exoskeletons.
- Animals
To test sleep, researchers don’t let sleeping jellyfish lie
Upside-down jellyfish are the first known animals without a brain to enter a sleeplike state.
- Physics
Turning up the heat on electrons reveals an elusive physics phenomenon
Heating a strip of platinum creates a “spin current” in the material’s electrons due to the spin Nernst effect.
- Anthropology
Neandertal kids were a lot like kids today — at least in how they grew
Ancient youngster’s spine and brain grew at relatively slow pace.
- Health & Medicine
From day one, a frog’s developing brain is calling the shots
Frog brains help organize muscle and nerve patterns early in development.
- Environment
The way poison frogs keep from poisoning themselves is complicated
Gaining resistance to one of their own toxins forced some poison dart frogs to make other genetic tweaks, too.
- Neuroscience
Gene variant linked to Alzheimer’s disease is a triple threat
A genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease works on multiple aspects of the disease, researchers report.
- Astronomy
Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays come from outside the Milky Way
The biggest cosmic ray haul ever points toward other galaxies as the source of the rays, not our own.
- Paleontology
Shhhh! Some plant-eating dinos snacked on crunchy critters
Scientists studying dinosaur poop found that some duck-billed dinos cheated on their vegetarian diets by snacking on crustaceans.
