News
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Extreme Healing: Protein aids limb regrowth in newts
The ability of newts to regenerate severed limbs depends crucially on a protein released by the insulating sheath around nerves.
- Animals
Cousin Who? Gliding mammals may be primates’ nearest kin
Two species of small, little-known rain forest mammals may be primates' closest living relatives.
- Health & Medicine
Early Arrival: HIV came from Haiti to United States
New analysis of 25-year-old blood samples indicates that HIV reached the United States in about 1969, 12 years before AIDS was first formally described.
- Paleontology
Meet the old wolves, same as the new wolves
The dire wolf, an extinct species preserved in abundance at the La Brea tar pits, seems to have had a social structure similar to that of its modern-day relatives.
- Paleontology
Dinosaurs matured sexually while still growing
Distinctive bone tissue in fossils of several dinosaur species suggests that the ancient reptiles became sexually mature long before they gained adult size.
- Paleontology
Deinonychus’ claws were hookers, not rippers
The meat-eating dinosaur Deinonychus probably used the large, sicklelike claw on its foot to grip and climb large prey, not disembowel it.
- Paleontology
The first matrushka
A newly found fossil preserves one creature inside another that lies nestled inside yet another, a Paleozoic version of the Russian nesting dolls known as matrushkas.
- Materials Science
Printing scheme could yield 3-D photonic crystals
An innovative printing scheme makes three-dimensional crystal structures that could be used to control the flow of light.
- Anthropology
DNA to Neandertals: Lighten up
DNA analysis indicates that some Neandertals may have had a gene for pale skin and red hair.
- Animals
Smells Funny: Fish schools break up over body odor
Just an hour's swim in slightly contaminated water can give a fish such bad body odor that its schoolmates shun it.
- Anthropology
Not So Clear-Cut: Soil erosion may not have led to Mayan downfall
Hand-planted maize, beans, and squash sustained the Mayans for millennia, until their culture collapsed about 1,100 years ago. Some researchers have suggested that the Mayans’ very success in turning forests into farmland led to soil erosion that made farming increasingly difficult and eventually caused their downfall. But a new study of ancient lake sediments has […]
- Astronomy
Odd Couples: Big black holes challenge star theory
The discovery of a black hole almost 16 times as massive as the sun, and the possible discovery of an even heavier one, challenge theories of how such black holes form.
