News
- Genetics
Ebola continues to shift, but grows no more fatal
In the West African epidemic, Ebola evolved and spread quickly, but the virus is not becoming deadlier over time.
- Animals
One bold, misinformed spider slows a colony’s ability to learn
Incorrect ideas prove more dangerous in bold velvet spiders than in shyer ones.
- Astronomy
Distant galaxy may contain primeval stars
A stockpile of the first generation of stars might be lighting up gas in a galaxy that existed roughly 800 million years after the Big Bang.
- Ecosystems
Ocean food source lives by day, dies by night
The most abundant carbon fixer in the oceans lives by day, dies by night, and may be key to the balance of marine ecosystems.
- Neuroscience
Alzheimer’s spares brain’s music regions
Brain regions involved in recognizing familiar songs are relatively unscathed in Alzheimer’s disease.
- Life
Aging: Nature’s way of reducing competition for resources
Aging may have developed in many species as a genetic mechanism to conserve future resources. If the controversial proposal is true, then scientists may be able to greatly extend life span by deactivating the machinery for aging embedded in our DNA.
- Genetics
A circadian clock transplant gives E. coli rhythm
Clockworks from algae built into E. coli may hold future jet lag treatment.
- Earth
Fluid injection triggers earthquakes indirectly, study finds
An up-close look at artificially triggered quakes suggests that tremors start slow and smooth.
- Life
A protein variant can provide protection from deadly brain-wasting
If cannibalism hadn’t stopped, a protective protein may have ended kuru anyway.
- Anthropology
Modern-day trackers reinterpret Stone Age cave footprints
African trackers help researchers interpret ancient human footprints in French caves.
- Anthropology
Human laugh lines traced back to ape ancestors
Chimps make laughing faces that speak to evolution of human ha-ha’s.
- Archaeology
Bronze Age humans racked up travel miles
A new study indicates long journeys and unexpected genetic links in Bronze Age Eurasian cultures.
