News
- Life
Light pollution can foil plant-insect hookups, and not just at night
Upsetting nocturnal pollinators has daylight after-effects for Swiss meadow flowers.
By Susan Milius - Climate
South Asia could face deadly heat and humidity by the end of this century
If climate change is left unchecked, simulations show extreme heat waves in densely populated agricultural regions of India and Pakistan.
- Genetics
Gene editing of human embryos gets rid of a mutation that causes heart failure
Gene editing of human embryos can efficiently repair a gene defect without making new mistakes.
- Planetary Science
Evidence mounts for an ocean on early Venus
Not long after its birth, Venus may have rocked a water ocean, new simulations suggest.
- Animals
Newly discovered lymph hydraulics give tunas their fancy moves
There’s still some anatomy to discover in fishes as familiar as bluefin and yellowfin tunas.
By Susan Milius - Neuroscience
Mice with a mutation linked to autism affect their littermates’ behavior
Genetically normal littermates of mutated mice behave strangely, suggesting that the social environment plays a big role in behavior.
- Space
Potential ingredient for alien life found on Titan
The atmosphere and oceans of Saturn’s moon Titan contain vinyl cyanide, a compound predicted to form cell-like bubbles.
- Genetics
Tardigrades aren’t champion gene swappers after all
Genetic studies reveal more secrets of the bizarre creatures known as tardigrades.
- Materials Science
The thinnest films of copper look flat, but they aren’t
It turns out that thin films of copper don’t lay flat, a discovery that has implications for computers and handheld electronics.
- Anthropology
Ancient DNA offers clues to the Canaanites’ fate
DNA is painting a more detailed portrait of the ancient Canaanites, who have largely been studied through the secondhand accounts of their contemporaries.
- Astronomy
Half of the Milky Way comes from other galaxies
A galaxy may swipe up to half of its atoms from other galaxies, making the Milky Way mostly extragalactic stuff, new simulations suggest.
- Plants
Borrowed genes give mums the blues
Scientists have genetically modified chrysanthemums to be “true blue” for the first time.