News
- Astronomy
For the first time, astrophysicists have caught a star eating a planet
A burst of light and a cloud of dust are signs that a star 12,000 light-years away swallowed a planet up to 10 times the mass of Jupiter.
- Archaeology
Ancient human DNA was extracted from a 20,000-year-old deer tooth pendant
Insights into Stone Age people’s lives may soon come from a new, nondestructive DNA extraction method.
- Animals
A 2,200-year-old poop time capsule reveals secrets of the Andean condor
Guano that has accumulated in a cliffside Andean condor nest for 2,200 years reveals how the now-vulnerable birds responded to a changing environment.
- Health & Medicine
Ultrasound allows a chemotherapy drug to enter the human brain
An early-stage clinical trial demonstrates a technique for getting a powerful chemotherapy drug past the usually impenetrable blood-brain barrier.
- Neuroscience
Neuroscientists decoded people’s thoughts using brain scans
The finding may lead to better communication aids for people who can’t communicate easily. It also raises privacy concerns.
- Health & Medicine
Mouse hair turns gray when certain stem cells get stuck
Stem cells involved in giving hair its color must keep moving and changing maturity levels to prevent graying, a mouse study suggests.
- Oceans
Satellite data reveal nearly 20,000 previously unknown deep-sea mountains
By looking for tiny bumps in sea level caused by the gravity of subsurface mountains, researchers have roughly doubled the number of known seamounts.
- Physics
Black holes resolve paradoxes by destroying quantum states
A classic quantum experiment done near a black hole would create a paradox, physicists report. But not if the black hole collapses quantum states.
- Health & Medicine
Fentanyl deaths have spiked among U.S. children and teens
Wider access to naloxone, which reverses the deadly effect of fentanyl, is key as more children are exposed to the opioid, experts say.
- Genetics
Here are 5 cool findings from a massive project on 240 mammal genomes
A new series of studies on mammal genetics is helping scientists start to answer questions about evolution, cancer and even what makes us human.
- Physics
These worms can escape tangled blobs in an instant. Here’s how
Tangled masses of California blackworms form over minutes but untangle in tens of milliseconds. Now scientists know how.
- Health & Medicine
Pets and people bonded during the pandemic. But owners were still stressed and lonely
People grew closer to their pets during the first two years of COVID. But pet ownership didn’t reduce stress or loneliness, survey data show.
