Notebook
- Animals
Why ground squirrels go ninja over nothing
Ground squirrels twist and dodge fast enough to have a decent chance of escaping rattlesnake attacks.
- Neuroscience
Cold War collaboration probed possible viral cause of ALS
A mid-1960s collaboration between American and Soviet researchers explored a possible viral cause of ALS.
- Environment
Trash researcher tallies ocean pollution
Marcus Eriksen has always had a thing for trash, and now he tallies ocean pollution.
- Life
Fossil fish eye has 300 million-year-old rods and cones
A fossil fish shows the earliest evidence of rods and cones, cells essential for color vision in vertebrates.
- Animals
It’s bat vs. bat in aerial jamming wars
In nighttime flying duels, Mexican free-tailed bats make short, wavering sirenlike sounds that jam each other’s sonar.
- Health & Medicine
Electric detection of lung cancer
In 1964, researchers hoped to improve lung cancer diagnosis by measuring the skin’s electrical resistance.
- Climate
Super typhoon shoved supersized boulder
Typhoon Haiyan pushed a 180-ton boulder, the most massive rock ever seen moved by a storm.
- Neuroscience
Cocoa antioxidant sweetens cognition in elderly
Very high doses of antioxidants found in cocoa may prevent some types of cognitive decline in older adults. But that’s not an excuse to eat more chocolate.
- Ecosystems
Bee losses followed World Wars
British historical records show a century-long decline of important pollinators: bees and some wasps.
- Environment
Black carbon fouls New York subway stations
Black carbon, a respiratory irritant, fouls air in New York subway stations.
- Health & Medicine
A look back at 2013’s disasters
The Philippines, India and China each lost more than 1,000 lives in 2013 in mass calamities.
- Microbes
Microbes floating among clouds may munch on sugar
Floating in a cloud and noshing sweets while wrapped in a cozy bubble sounds like a pleasant dream. For some lucky bacteria, it may be a reality.
