News
- Animals
Rattlesnakes tutor robot on dune climbing
Snakes sidewinding up sand inspire design improvements for robots navigating treacherous slopes.
- Chemistry
Microscopy providing ‘window into the cell’ wins chemistry Nobel
Three scientists use fluorescence and lasers to see single molecules and other tiny objects.
- Archaeology
Indonesian stencils rival age of Europe’s early cave art
Hand prints outlined in pigment were made in Southeast Asia at least 39,900 years ago, making the paintings about the same age as European cave art.
- Materials Science
Blue LEDs win Nobel Prize in physics
Light-emitting diodes have led to more energy-efficient bulbs that are elbowing out incandescents.
- Chemistry
Lasers wrest oxygen from carbon dioxide
By zapping oxygen molecules off carbon dioxide, an experiment hints that Earth may have had breathable air long before the dawn of plants.
- Anthropology
Mysterious foreigner may have ruled ancient Maya kingdom
Bone chemistry suggests one of the early rulers of the Maya kingdom Copan and his retainers had foreign credentials.
- Neuroscience
Neuroscientists garner Nobel for discovering brain’s ‘inner GPS’
Three researchers who found brain cells that allow rats to orient themselves in space have won the 2014 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
- Quantum Physics
Photons on roundabout route could get caught in action
Proposed twist on classic double-slit experiment could identify light that weaves in and out.
- Physics
Signal of elusive Majorana particle emerges in a nanowire
New evidence supports existence of exotic Majorana particle — a particle that is its own antiparticle.
- Animals
Invasive rabbitfish team up to raze algal forests
Tropical rabbitfish have expanded into temperate Mediterranean waters, where they destroy algae forests by gobbling both young and adult algae.
- Oceans
Satellites expose mysteries of the deep ocean
New detailed map of Earth’s seafloor reveals never-before-seen formations.
- Neuroscience
High blood sugar could worsen effects of spinal injury
Studies in people and mice suggest reining in blood sugar can improve recovery from a spinal cord injury.
