News
- Archaeology
Stone circles show Neandertals’ social, technical skills
Ancient human relatives built circular stalagmite structures inside a French cave.
- 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.
- Life
How the Galápagos cormorant got its tiny wings
Galápagos cormorants’ tiny wings may be due to altered reception in cellular antennas.
- Life
Giraffe’s long neck linked to its genetic profile
Giraffes’ genes may reveal how their necks grew long and hearts got strong.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists wrestle with possibility of second Zika-spreading mosquito
It’s hard to say yet whether Asian tiger mosquitoes will worsen the ongoing Zika outbreak in the Americas.
- Anthropology
‘Slam-dunk’ find puts hunter-gatherers in Florida 14,500 years ago
Finds at an underwater site put people in Florida a surprisingly long time ago.
- Earth
Remnants from Earth’s birth linger 4.5 billion years later
Shaken, not stirred: Tungsten isotopes reveal that mantle convection has left some remnants of ancient Earth untouched for 4.5 billion years.
