News
- Paleontology
New evidence weakens case against climate in woolly mammoths’ death
Hunters responsible for woolly mammoths’ extinction, suggests a chemical analysis of juveniles’ tusks.
- Paleontology
Dimetrodon’s diet redetermined
The reptilelike Dimetrodon dined mainly on amphibians and sharks, not big herbivores as scientists once believed.
- Anthropology
Sleep time in hunter-gatherer groups on low end of scale
Hunter-gatherer communities in Africa and South America have similar sleeping patterns as people living in postindustrial societies, researchers find.
- Neuroscience
Adolescent brains open to change
Adolescent brains are still changing, a malleability that renders them particularly sensitive to the outside world.
- Anthropology
Long before going to Europe, humans ventured east to Asia
Cave finds indicate modern humans reached southern China long before entering Europe.
- Environment
Air pollutants enter body through skin
Although scientists have largely viewed skin as an unimportant portal to blood for toxic air pollutants, new human data show that skin can surpass lungs as a route of entry.
- Genetics
Gene editing makes pigs safer for human transplants
CRISPR/Cas9 disables multiple viruses at one time
- Quantum Physics
Future quantum computing could exploit old technology
Silicon transistors have been modified and patched together to form logic gates that could perform calculations in future quantum computers.
- Oceans
Oxygen in Black Sea has declined by more than a third since 1955
The Black Sea’s oxygen-rich surface layer shrank by more than a third from 1955 through 2013, compressing marine habitats and bringing toxic hydrogen sulfide closer to the surface.
- Genetics
Chemical tags on DNA appear to differ between gay and straight men
DNA marks distinguished homosexual men from heterosexual men with in a small twin study.
- Humans
Into Africa: Ancient skeleton sheds light on reverse migration
Ancient man’s DNA helps reveal extent of Eurasian farmers’ back-to-Africa migration some 3,000 years ago.
- Science & Society
Nobels note neutrinos, DNA, drugs
The Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry and physiology or medicine ran the gamut this year, honoring both fundamental science discoveries and research with real-world impacts.
