News
- Earth
Geologists discover tectonic plate’s slippery underbelly
Slippery layer of partially melted rock underneath tectonic plate revealed using reflected dynamite blast vibrations.
- Animals
Cockroach personalities can speed or slow group decisions
The mix of temperaments in an alarmed cluster of cockroaches changes how quickly they make group decisions.
- Humans
Baby brains undergo dramatic changes in utero
Developing human brains experience more than 28,000 changes in a molecular process that governs gene activity.
- Anthropology
Ancient Maya bookmakers get paged in Guatemala
New discoveries peg ritual specialists as force behind bark-paper tomes and wall murals.
- Cosmology
Dust erases evidence for gravity wave detection
The claimed detection of primordial gravitational waves does not hold up after taking into account galactic dust, a new analysis concludes.
- Neuroscience
Chicks show left-to-right number bias
Recently hatched chicks may have their own version of the left-to-right mental number line.
- Neuroscience
Newly identified brain circuit could be target for treating obesity
In mice, specific nerve cells control compulsive sugar consumption, but not normal feeding, hinting at a new therapeutic target for treating obesity.
- Astronomy
Oldest solar system unearthed by Kepler
Five rocky planets orbit the 11.2-billion-year-old star Kepler 444, suggesting that Earth-sized worlds formed in the early universe.
- Climate
Central American fires may intensify U.S. tornadoes
Smoke originating from Central American fires may strengthen U.S. tornadoes.
- Neuroscience
Immune system may remember and adapt to stress
Mice without immune systems who receive stressed immune cells are less anxious and more social, suggesting that the immune system can adapt to stress.
- Paleontology
Snakes crawled among Jurassic dinosaurs, new timeline says
Earliest snake fossils provide evidence snakes evolved their flexible skulls before their long, limbless bodies.
- Chemistry
Sodium and other alkali explosions finally explained
A high-speed camera snaps sharp details of how alkali metals explode in water — a classic, but until now, not fully explained chemical reaction.
