News

Health & Medicine

Ricin poisoning may one day be treatable with new antidote

Mice treated with a blend of antibodies survived even when treated days after exposure to ricin.

Life

Horses buck evolutionary ideas

Horse evolution doesn’t fit classic scenario of trait evolution.

Life

Malaria molecule makes blood extra-alluring to mosquitoes

Scientists have identified a molecule that draws mosquitoes to malaria-infected blood.

Animals

Young penguins follow false food cues

Juvenile African penguins are being trapped in barren habitats, led astray by biological cues that are no longer reliable because of human activity.

Genetics

Number of species depends how you count them

Genetic evidence alone may overestimate numbers of species, researchers warn.

Astronomy

Middling black hole may be hiding in star cluster

A black hole with about 2,200 times the mass of the sun has been detected. If confirmed, it could represent a new type of gas-starved black holes and hint at how supermassive ones may form.

Climate

Hot nests, not vanishing males, are bigger sea turtle threat

Climate change overheating sea turtle nestlings may be a greater danger than temperature-induced shifts in their sex ratios.

Psychology

Long-lasting mental health isn’t normal

Those who stay mentally healthy from childhood to middle age are exceptions to the rule.

Earth

Oxygen flooded Earth’s atmosphere earlier than thought

The Great Oxidation Event that enabled the eventual evolution of complex life began 100 million years earlier than once thought, new dating of South African rock suggests.

Astronomy

Faint, distant galaxies may have driven early universe makeover

Gravitational lensing has revealed extremely faint galaxies in the early universe, suggesting these tiny galaxies were responsible for cosmic reionization.

Anthropology

DNA points to millennia of stability in East Asian hunter-fisher population

Ancient hunter-gatherers in East Asia are remarkably similar, genetically, to modern people living in the area. Unlike what happened in Western Europe, this region might not have seen waves of farmers take over.

Archaeology

Iron Age secrets exhumed from riches-filled crypt

Wealthy woman’s 2,600-year-old grave highlights Central Europe’s early Iron Age links to Mediterranean societies.