News
- Chemistry
Extreme cold is no match for a new battery
A rechargeable battery that works at –70° C could be used in some of the coldest places on Earth or other planets.
- Earth
Early land plants led to the rise of mud
New research suggests early land plants called bryophytes, which include modern mosses, helped shape Earth’s surface by creating clay-rich river deposits.
- Animals
It’s official: Termites are just cockroaches with a fancy social life
On their latest master list of arthropods, U.S. entomologists have finally declared termites to be a kind of cockroach.
- Health & Medicine
Human skin bacteria have cancer-fighting powers
Strains of a bacteria that live on human skin make a compound that suppressed tumor growth in mice.
- Microbes
A new way to make bacteria glow could simplify TB screening
A new dye to stain tuberculosis bacteria in coughed-up mucus and saliva could expedite TB diagnoses and drug-resistance tests.
- Cosmology
Here’s when the universe’s first stars may have been born
The first stars lit the cosmos by 180 million years after the Big Bang, radio observations suggest.
- Life
A rare rainstorm wakes undead microbes in Chile’s Atacama Desert
Microbial life in Chile’s Atacama Desert bursts into bloom when moisture is available.
- Neuroscience
Some flu strains can make mice forgetful
Mice infected with influenza had memory problems a month later, a result that hints at a link between infections and brain performance.
- Particle Physics
The quest to identify the nature of the neutrino’s alter ego is heating up
The search is on for a rare nuclear decay that could prove neutrinos are their own antiparticles and shed light on the universe’s antimatter mystery.
- Quantum Physics
Two-way communication is possible with a single quantum particle
One photon can transmit information in two directions at once.
- Archaeology
Cave art suggests Neandertals were ancient humans’ mental equals
Ancient humans’ close relatives also created rock art and shell ornaments, studies assert.
- Space
Americans would welcome alien life rather than fear it
Americans would probably take the discovery of extraterrestrial microbes pretty well.
