News
- Health & Medicine
Why Huntington’s disease may take so long to develop
Repeated bits of the disease-causing gene pile up in some brain cells. New treatments could involve stopping the additions.
- Physics
Light, not just heat, might spur water to evaporate
In experiments, light shining on water as much as doubled the evaporation rate expected from heat alone, hinting at a never-before-seen effect.
- Animals
How hummingbirds fly through spaces too narrow for their wings
Using high-speed cameras, a new study reveals Anna’s hummingbirds turn sideways to shimmy through gaps half as wide as their wingspan.
- Environment
Grassland and shrubland fires destroy more U.S. homes than forest fires
Grassland and shrubland fires destroyed nearly 11,000 homes in the contiguous United States from 1990 to 2020.
- Climate
The last 12 months were the hottest on record
The planet’s average temperature was about 1.3 degrees Celsius higher than the 1850–1900 average, a new report finds.
- Life
Head lice hitched a ride on humans to the Americas at least twice
The genes of head lice record the story of their human hosts’ global voyages.
- Physics
A controversial room-temperature superconductor result has now been retracted
The retraction by Nature is the third for beleaguered physicist Ranga Dias, who still stands by his claim of a room-temperature superconductor.
- Animals
The mysterious deaths of dozens of Zimbabwe’s elephants has been solved
A bacterium never before identified in elephants or implicated in deadly internal hemorrhaging killed Zimbabwe elephants in 2020, genetic tests show.
- Health & Medicine
The CDC is expanding its disease surveillance of international travelers
Passengers at four major U.S. airports will now be tested for over 30 pathogens through a mix of wastewater testing and voluntary nasal swabs.
- Animals
Here’s how high-speed diving kingfishers may avoid concussions
Understanding the genetic adaptations that protect the birds’ brains when they dive for food might one day offer clues to protecting human brains.
- Neuroscience
In a Jedi-like feat, rats can move a digital object using just their brain
In a new study, rats could imagine their way through a 3-D virtual world, hinting at how brains can think about places that they’re not physically in.
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Rock from the impact that formed the moon may linger in Earth’s mantle
When the young Earth and a Mars-sized body collided 4.5 billion years ago, it left behind dense mantle rock that survives to today, a study finds.
