Uncategorized
- Animals
Peacock spiders’ superblack spots reflect just 0.5 percent of light
By manipulating light with tiny structures, patches on peacock spiders appear superblack, helping accentuate the arachnids’ bright colors.
- Artificial Intelligence
AI can learn real-world skills from playing StarCraft and Minecraft
By playing StarCraft and Minecraft, artificial intelligence is learning how to collaborate and adapt.
- Genetics
Tweaking one gene with CRISPR switched the way a snail shell spirals
The first gene-edited snails confirm which gene is responsible for the direction of the shell’s spiral.
- Planetary Science
Apollo-era moonquakes reveal that the moon may be tectonically active
Moonquakes recorded decades ago suggest the moon is tectonically active. Knowing more about that activity could help scientists identify where to land future spacecraft.
- Artificial Intelligence
A new AI acquired humanlike ‘number sense’ on its own
A new artificial intelligence seems to share our intuitive ability to estimate numbers at a glance.
- Science & Society
Celebrating scientists who ask big questions
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute discusses scientists who are asking important questions for society.
- Ecosystems
Readers were curious about green icebergs, aliens and more
Readers had questions and comments about icebergs and climate change, CBD and NASA’s search for E.T.
- Animals
Deep-sea fishes’ eye chemistry might let them see colors in near darkness
An unexpected abundance of proteins for catching dim light evolved independently in three groups of weird deep-sea fishes.
- Earth
Only a third of Earth’s longest rivers still run free
Mapping millions of kilometers of waterways shows that just 37 percent of rivers longer than 1,000 kilometers remain unchained by human activities.
- Archaeology
Ancient South American populations dipped due to an erratic climate
Scientists link bouts of intense rainfall and drought around 8,600 to 6,000 years ago to declining numbers of South American hunter-gatherers.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, scientists tried to transplant part of a human eye
In 1969, a doctor tried and failed to restore a 54-year-old man’s vision. Fifty years later, scientists are still struggling to make eye transplants work.
- Life
A gut bacteria transplant may not help you lose weight
A small study finds that transplanting gut microbes from a lean person into obese people didn’t lead to weight loss, as hoped.
