Notebook
- Paleontology
Sea scorpions slashed victims with swordlike tails
Ancient sea scorpion used a flexible, swordlike tail to hack at prey and defend against predators.
- Planetary Science
Why you can hear and see meteors at the same time
People can see and hear meteors simultaneously because of radio waves produced by the descending space rocks.
- Health & Medicine
Global access to quality health care has improved in the last two decades
Health care quality and availability improved worldwide from 1990 to 2015, but the gap between countries with the lowest and highest levels of care widened.
- Planetary Science
50 years ago, an Earth-based telescope spotted Saturn’s fourth ring
Scientists now rely on spacecraft to chart the intricate rings of the gas giant.
- Animals
Blennies have a lot of fang for such little fishes
Unlike snakes, blennies evolved fangs before venom, through probably not because of any need to hunt big prey.
- Earth
Ice particles shaped like lollipops fall from clouds
Small ice particles called ice-lollies, because of their lollipop-like appearance, can form in clouds.
- Animals
50 years ago, U.S. fell short on mosquito eradication
Researchers boldly predicted mosquitoes’ demise 50 years ago. They never came close.
- Climate
Radical idea could restore ice in the Arctic Ocean
Windmill-powered pumps on buoys throughout the Arctic Ocean could help bring back shrinking sea ice, researchers say.
- Archaeology
Oldest evidence of patterned silk loom found in China
Chinese finds offer earliest look at game-changing weaving machine.
- Animals
Beetles have been mooching off insect colonies for millions of years
The behavior, called social parasitism, has been going on for about 100 million years.
- Earth
50 years ago, continental drift began to gain acceptance
Half a century later, plate tectonics is well-established but still an active field of research.
- Paleontology
Early dinosaur relative sported odd mix of bird, crocodile-like traits
Teleocrater rhadinus gives researchers a better picture of what early dinosaur relatives looked like.
