Notebook
- Life
Fruit fly’s giant sperm is quite an exaggeration
Giant sperm, about 20 times a male fruit fly’s body length, could make the insects the champs of supersized sexual ornaments.
- Physics
The center of Earth is younger than the outer surface
Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts the center of the Earth is two years younger than the crust.
- Oceans
The Arctic Ocean is about to get spicier
Variations in the saltiness and temperature of seawater of the same density, called spiciness, could increase as the Arctic Ocean warms.
- Health & Medicine
With easy e-cig access, teen vaping soars
The vast majority of U.S. states ban sales or distribution of e-cigarette products to minors. Still, it’s no sweat for teens to buy them online.
- Astronomy
Fast-moving star duo is heading out of the Milky Way
A pair of hyperfast stars hurtling through a remote region of the Milky Way might have been orphaned after a long-ago galactic collision, a new study suggests.
- Astronomy
Earth has nothing on this exoplanet’s lightning storms
Lightning storms far more intense than any on Earth might explain radio waves that once came from a planet 124 light-years away.
- Health & Medicine
Early work on human growth hormone paved way for synthetic versions
In 1966, researchers reported the complete chemical structure of human growth hormone. Today synthetic growth hormone is used to treat growth hormone deficiency.
- Microbes
Leptospirosis bacterium still haunts swimming holes
Bacterial scourges lurk in warm recreational waters.
- Animals
New species of hairy weevil named after Chewbacca
A new weevil species,Trigonopterus chewbacca, joins the ranks of insects with a Star Wars moniker.
- Life
Studying cheese reveals how microbes interact
Microbiologist Rachel Dutton uses cheese rinds to study how microbes form communities.
- Paleontology
Beetle saved in amber had helicopter wings
For the first time, scientists report the fossilized remains of two tiny Jacobson’s Beetles, preserved in amber for at least 37 million years.
- Archaeology
Bear bone rewrites human history in Ireland
A rediscovered bear bone puts humans in Ireland at least 12,600 years ago.
