Uncategorized
- Health & Medicine
Drinking studies muddied the waters around the safety of alcohol use
Studies claiming that alcohol in even small amounts is dangerous weren’t designed to address risks of moderate drinking.
- Planetary Science
A buried lake on Mars excited and baffled scientists
Planetary scientists are still trying to explain how a lake could have formed beneath a kilometer and a half of Martian ice.
- Neuroscience
Zapping the spinal cord helped paralyzed people learn to move again
A handful of people paralyzed from spinal cord injuries have learned to walk again.
- Anthropology
Human smarts got a surprisingly early start
Human ingenuity began on treks across Asia and in fluctuating African habitats.
By Bruce Bower - Science & Society
To assemble a Top 10 list, Science News starts in June
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute discusses creating Science News' annual Top 10 science stories of the year.
By Nancy Shute - Climate
New research may upend what we know about how tornadoes form
New data on the birth of tornadoes suggest that the twisters don’t form from the top down.
- Animals
Endangered northern bettongs aren’t picky truffle eaters
Without the northern bettong, the variety of Australia’s truffle-producing fungi could take a hit, a new study finds.
- Animals
Counting the breaths of wild porpoises reveals their revved-up metabolism
A new method tracks harbor porpoises’ breathing to collect rare information on the energy needs of the marine mammals.
By Susan Milius - Neuroscience
Big data reveals hints of how, when and where mental disorders start
The first wave of data from the PsychENCODE project holds new clues to how and when psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia emerge.
- Archaeology
Corn domestication took some unexpected twists and turns
A DNA study challenges the idea people fully tamed maize in Mexico before the plant spread.
By Bruce Bower - Neuroscience
Here’s a rare way that an Alzheimer’s protein can spread
Amyloid-beta found in vials of growth hormone can move from brain to brain, a mouse study shows.
- Animals
50 years ago, armadillos hinted that DNA wasn’t destiny
Nine-banded armadillos have identical quadruplets. But the youngsters aren’t identical enough, and scientists 50 years ago could not figure out why.