Uncategorized
-
Animals
Why bat scientists are socially distancing from their subjects
Scientists are calling for a “hands-off” approach to research to decrease the chances of spreading the coronavirus to bats in North America.
-
Health & Medicine
The arthritis drug tocilizumab doesn’t appear to help fight COVID-19
The best available evidence so far hasn’t found that the anti-inflammatory drug benefited patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
-
Paleontology
Bat-winged dinosaurs were clumsy fliers
The two known species of bat-winged dinosaurs were a dead end when it comes to the evolution of bird flight, a new study finds.
-
Anthropology
Homo erectus, not humans, may have invented the barbed bone point
Carved artifacts excavated from Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge suggest now-extinct hominids made barbed bone points long before humans did, researchers say.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
How environmental changes may have helped make ancient humans more adaptable
An East African sediment core unveils ecological changes underlying a key Stone Age transition.
By Bruce Bower -
Space
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx survived its risky mission to grab a piece of an asteroid
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft just tried to grab a piece of asteroid Bennu. If successful, the spacecraft will return the sample to Earth in 2023.
-
Animals
The diabolical ironclad beetle can survive getting run over by a car. Here’s how
The diabolical ironclad beetle is an incredibly tough little creature. A peek inside its exoskeleton reveals what makes it virtually uncrushable.
-
Animals
Naked mole-rats invade neighboring colonies and steal babies
Naked mole-rats invade neighboring colonies, steal pups and evict any others left behind. The show of force may be central to their underground lifestyle.
By Jake Buehler -
Oceans
Even the deepest, coldest parts of the ocean are getting warmer
Deep-sea temperatures seem to be rising, but it’s too soon to say whether that’s a result of climate change caused by humans, researchers say.
-
Animals
Fire ants build little syphons out of sand to feed without drowning
To escape a watery death, some fire ants use build sand structures that draw the insects’ sugary, liquid food out of containers and to a safer place.
-
Animals
A rope bridge restored a highway through the trees for endangered gibbons
When critically endangered Hainan gibbons started making dangerous leaps across a new gully, researchers came up with an alternative route.
-
Humans
We still don’t know what COVID-19 immunity means or how long it lasts
Without knowing how long immunity lasts, it may be impossible to reach herd immunity without a vaccine or an extremely high death toll.