News
- Oceans
On East Coast, sea levels lean southward
On North America’s East Coast, sea levels tilt slightly downward to the north, new research finds.
- Paleontology
Earliest tree-dweller, burrower join mammal tree of life
Fossils show mammal ancestors did a lot more than cower in dinosaurs’ shadows.
- Climate
Worst drought in a millennium predicted for central and southwest U.S.
Comparing reconstructions of past drought conditions with models of future dryness shows that the Central Plains and Southwest U.S. will become the driest in a millennium.
- Animals
When you’re happy and you show it, dogs know it
A new test using pictures of halves of human faces challenges dogs’ abilities to read people’s emotions.
- Health & Medicine
U.S. measles tally for 2015 now at 121 cases
The 2014–2015 measles outbreak in the United States has now reached people in 17 states and the District of Columbia.
- Life
The genetic evolution of Darwin’s finches
A genetic analysis divides Darwin’s finches into more species and uncovers a gene involved in determining beak shape.
- Climate
Artificial fixes for climate change nixed — for now
Experts says schemes to manually adjust the world’s climate are not ready for use, but should be studied just in case.
- Neuroscience
A brain at rest offers clues to Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s
PET scans reveal that the breakdown of brain networks differs in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
- Astronomy
Asteroids or planets might trigger a supernova
Rocky debris falling onto a white dwarf might trigger some supernovas.
- Physics
Temperatures taken in the realm of the tiny
Aluminum and other materials can serve as their own thermometers at nanometer scales, opening up the possibility of taking the temperature of tiny computer transistors.
- Materials Science
Oxygen sneaks into titanium, making it brittle
Oxygen atoms trigger defects in titanium’s atomic structure, making the metal brittle.
- Neuroscience
Shots of brain cells restore learning, memory in rats
Scientists healed damage caused to rats’ brains from radiation by injecting cells that replenish the insulation on neurons.
