News
- Climate
Ocean bacteria may have shut off ancient global warming
Ocean-dwelling bacteria may have helped end global warming 56 million years ago by gobbling up carbon from the CO2-laden atmosphere.
- Climate
IPCC calls for swift switch to alternative power
Rapid adoption of green power production will be necessary to avert a climate crisis, latest IPCC report says.
By Beth Mole - Astronomy
Early Mars couldn’t hold liquid water long
Small rocks hit Mars 3.6 billion years ago, suggesting an early atmosphere too thin for liquid water to hang around very long.
- Particle Physics
Exotic particle packs a foursome of quarks
Tetraquarks could help physicists understand the universe’s first generations of matter.
By Andrew Grant - Life
In a crisis, fruit flies do stunt turns
An elaborate monitoring system reveals that fruit flies can execute sophisticated flying maneuvers in the face of danger.
By Susan Milius - Neuroscience
Smell wiring gets set early
Mess with a baby mouse’s olfaction for too long and neurons never recover.
- Astronomy
Neutrinos from space rain down from all directions
Using Earth as a filter, scientists detect thousands of neutrinos from beyond the solar system.
By Andrew Grant - Earth
Tiny minerals may have shaped Earth’s first plate boundaries
Simulations link weakened rock minerals to the origin of plate tectonics on Earth.
By Naomi Lubick - Genetics
Bank voles provide clue to prion disease susceptibility
A protein from bank voles makes mice susceptible to disorders that wouldn’t otherwise infect them.
- Planetary Science
Subsurface sea hides below ice of Saturn moon
Astronomers add to evidence for a subsurface ocean on Enceladus using subtle variations in the moon’s gravity.
- Neuroscience
Paralyzed mouse legs move with burst of light
Neural patch makes leg muscles twitch in paralyzed mice when blue light shines.
- Anthropology
Bronze Age herders spread farming around Asia
Ancient seeds indicate that Central Asian animal raisers had an unappreciated impact on early agriculture.
By Bruce Bower