News
- Anthropology
Ancient hominids used wooden spears to fend off big cats
Saber-toothed cat remains suggest ancient hominids used wooden spears as defensive weapons.
- Paleontology
Land life spared in Permian extinction, geologists argue
New rock layer dating in South Africa’s Karoo Basin suggests that extinctions of land species didn’t coincide with the Permian extinction around 252 million years ago.
- Chemistry
Tricky element isolated from spent nuclear fuel
A new chemical technique makes it easier to extract the radioactive element americium from used nuclear fuel, potentially paving the way for better ways to reprocess and recycle nuclear waste.
- Planetary Science
MAVEN mission finding clues to Mars’ climate change
Intense solar storms in the past might have stripped Mars of its water as well as much of the rest of its atmosphere.
- Climate
Kangaroo farts may not be so eco-friendly after all
Kangaroos fart methane, but not much thanks to the metabolism of gut microbes
- Particle Physics
Antiprotons match protons in response to strong nuclear force
The first study of how antiprotons interact with each other reveals yet again that particles of antimatter behave just like their ordinary matter counterparts.
- Neuroscience
Brain’s GPS cells map time and distance, not just location
Brain’s GPS cells map time and distance, too.
- Animals
Color of light sets dung beetles straight
Dung beetles may rely on green and ultraviolet colors in the sky to help orient themselves.
- Climate
Eocene temperature spike caused by half as much CO2 as once thought
Revised experiments demonstrate that hot temperatures during the Eocene resulted from lower carbon dioxide concentrations than previously thought.
- Paleontology
Vampire microbes sucked some ancient life dry
Hole-ridden fossils suggest that vampirelike microbes were among the first predators that targeted eukaryotes.
- Planetary Science
Pluto’s smaller moons pose mysteries
The four smaller moons of Pluto are finally revealed in images from New Horizons, and might hold some clues to the dwarf planet’s past.
- Tech
Electronic skin feels the heat, hears the sound
Electronic skin inspired by human fingertips detects texture, pressure, heat and sound.
