News
- Planetary Science
Mars may not have been born alongside the other rocky planets
Mars formed farther away from the sun than its present-day orbit, not near the other terrestrial planets, new research suggests.
- Neuroscience
Internal compass guides fruit fly navigation
Experiments show how flies navigate — and why this might be important for humans.
By Laura Beil - Environment
Peace and quiet is becoming more elusive in U.S. wild areas
Human noise stretches into the wilderness.
- Animals
Sea creatures’ sticky ‘mucus houses’ catch ocean carbon really fast
A new deepwater laser tool measures the carbon-filtering power of snot nets created by little-known sea animals called giant larvaceans.
By Susan Milius - Neuroscience
A baby’s pain registers in the brain
EEG recordings can help indicate whether a newborn baby is in pain, a preliminary study suggests.
- Planetary Science
Here’s how an asteroid impact would kill you
Most deaths caused by an asteroid impact would result from shock waves and winds generated from the blast, rather than effects such as earthquakes and tsunamis, new simulations show.
- Anthropology
Water tubing accidents, table run-ins cause Neandertal-like injuries
People’s injury patterns today can’t explain how Neandertals got so many head wounds.
By Bruce Bower - Chemistry
Chemistry controlled on tiniest scale can create hollow nanoparticles
Oxidizing tiny iron particles from the inside out reveals how oxidation works and could offer new vehicles for drugs or energy.
- Health & Medicine
Lungs enlist immune cells to fight infections in capillaries
Immune cells in the lungs provide a rapid counterattack to bloodstream infections, a new study in mice finds.
- Neuroscience
Nerve cell miswiring linked to depression
A gene helps nerve cell axons extend to parts of the brain to deliver serotonin, a brain chemical associated with depression.
- Climate
Ocean acidification may hamper food web’s nitrogen-fixing heroes
A new look at marine Trichodesmium microbes suggests trouble for nitrogen fixation in an acidifying ocean.
By Susan Milius - Quantum Physics
Key Einstein principle survives quantum test
Particles in quantum superposition adhere to the equivalence principle in atomic test.