News
- Computing
New technique produces real randomness
A new technique makes it easier for computers to roll the dice.
- Quantum Physics
Schrödinger’s cat now dead and alive in two boxes at once
The living-dead feline has been split in two, using a system of microwaves inside superconducting cavities.
- Climate
Climate-cooling aerosols can form from tree vapors
Climate-cooling, cloud-seeding aerosols can form in the atmosphere without the sulfuric acid spewed from fossil fuel burning, new research suggests.
- Neuroscience
Alzheimer’s culprit may fight other diseases
A notorious Alzheimer’s villain may help bust microbes.
- Archaeology
Stone circles show Neandertals’ social, technical skills
Ancient human relatives built circular stalagmite structures inside a French cave.
By Bruce Bower - Planetary Science
Space experts say sending humans to Mars worth the risk
At a meeting in Washington, NASA and aerospace reps discuss the hopes and hurdles of landing a crew on Mars by the 2030s.
- Astronomy
Young sun’s super solar flares helped set early Earth up for life
Super solar flares may have provided early Earth with planet-warming and life-building molecules.
- Climate
Zapping clouds with lasers could tweak planet’s temperature
Breaking up the ice particles inside cirrus clouds could make them reflect more light, turning them into a tool to combat global warming.
- Genetics
Risk identified in procedure for ‘three-parent babies’
Resurgent mitochondria could spell trouble for disease therapy.
- Oceans
Ancient tsunamis reshaped Mars’ landscape
Ancient tsunamis generated by meteorite impacts may have reshaped ocean coastlines on Mars.
- Life
1.56-billion-year-old fossils add drama to Earth’s ‘boring billion’
Ancient multicellular eukaryotes big enough to be seen by the naked eye discovered in 1.56-billion-year-old rock in China may be an ancestor of modern algae.
By Meghan Rosen - Life
How the Galápagos cormorant got its tiny wings
Galápagos cormorants’ tiny wings may be due to altered reception in cellular antennas.