Uncategorized
- Space
Flat spots on Saturn’s moon Titan may be the floors of ancient lake beds
Bright radio signals from Titan indicate the presence of ancient lake beds in its tropics, a new analysis finds.
- Health & Medicine
COVID-19 lockdowns helped people get more, but not necessarily better, sleep
Two studies report that people began sleeping more and more regularly after countries imposed stay-at-home orders to slow the coronavirus’ spread.
- Animals
Barn owlets share food with their younger siblings in exchange for grooming
Scientists weren’t sure why elder barn owlets would give away meals to their younger kin, a rare example of sibling cooperation in birds.
- Health & Medicine
The FDA has canceled emergency use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19
The malaria drug is unlikely to work as an antiviral and its risks don’t outweigh benefits in use against the coronavirus, the agency rules.
- Earth
Smoke from Australian fires rose higher into the ozone layer than ever before
The catastrophic wildfires in Australia around New Year’s generated a massive smoke plume that still hasn’t dissipated in the stratosphere.
- Animals
Larvaceans’ underwater ‘snot palaces’ boast elaborate plumbing
Mucus houses have valves and ducts galore that help giant larvaceans extract food from seawater.
- Science & Society
Real-life scientists inspire these comic book superheroes
Three scientists are publishing comics casting researchers as heroes, and hope the cartoon format and pared-down storyline can boost science literacy.
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History reveals how societies survive plagues
Editor in chief Nancy Shute writes about how societies have survived plagues, racial inequity, the coronavirus and racism as a public health crisis.
- Environment
How giving cash to poor families may also save trees in Indonesia
Indonesia’s poverty reduction program also reduced deforestation by 30 percent, researchers say.
- Archaeology
Clues to the earliest known bow-and-arrow hunting outside Africa have been found
Possible arrowheads at a rainforest site in Sri Lanka date to 48,000 years ago.
- Life
Fossil footprints show some crocodile ancestors walked on two legs
The 106-million-year-old tracks suggest that other puzzling nearby fossils were also likely made by a bipedal croc ancestor, not a giant pterosaur.
