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Microbes

Mini ‘solar panels’ help yeast shine at churning out drug ingredients

Microbes equipped with light-harvesting semiconductor particles generate useful chemicals much more efficiently than ordinary microbes.

Genetics

Coffee or tea? Your preference may be written in your DNA

Coffee or tea is a bitter choice, a taste genetics study suggests.

Earth

A massive crater hides beneath Greenland’s ice

The discovery of a vast crater in Greenland suggests that a 1-kilometer-wide asteroid hit the Earth between 2.6 million and 11,700 years ago.

Anthropology

Skull damage suggests Neandertals led no more violent lives than humans

Neandertals’ skulls suggest they didn’t lead especially injury-prone lives.

Animals

Sound-absorbent wings and fur help some moths evade bats

Tiny ultrathin scales on some moth wings absorb sound waves sent out by bats on the hunt.

Health & Medicine

U.S. cases of a polio-like illness rise, but there are few clues to its cause

A total of 90 cases of acute flaccid myelitis have been confirmed so far this year, out of 252 under investigation.

Ecosystems

How mammoths competed with other animals and lost

Mammoths, mastodons and other ancient elephants were wiped out at the end of the last ice age by climate change and spear-wielding humans.

Animals

Climate change may have made the Arctic deadlier for baby shorebirds

What were once relatively safe havens in the Arctic are now feasting sites for predators of baby birds.

Astronomy

One of Earth’s shimmering dust clouds has been spotted at last

Almost 60 years after a Polish astronomer spotted clouds of dust orbiting Earth near the moon, astronomers have detected those clouds again.

Quantum Physics

Physicists wrangled electrons into a quantum fractal

The tiny, repeating structure could reveal weird behavior of electrons in fractional dimensions.

Environment

Car tires and brake pads produce harmful microplastics

Scientists surveyed tiny airborne plastics near German highways and found that bits of tires, brake pads and asphalt make up most of the particles.

Planetary Science

China is about to visit uncharted territory on the moon

The next two Chinese missions to the moon will visit places no spacecraft has been before. The rest of the world wants a piece of the lunar action.