Uncategorized
- Astronomy
Three gas clouds nearly grazed the edge of the Milky Way’s black hole
Gas clumps cozy up to the Milky Way’s enormous black hole, new observations reveal.
- Tech
A new robot decides how and when to transform to get the job done
A bot made of smaller robotic pieces autonomously changes its shape to trundle across flat ground, squeeze into tight spaces or climb stairs.
- Health & Medicine
The appendix is implicated in Parkinson’s disease
Removal of the appendix reduced the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, an analysis of nearly 1.7 million health records in Sweden suggests.
- Animals
How roaches fight off wasps that turn their victims into zombies
Cockroaches kick attacking emerald jewel wasps to avoid being incapacitated and buried alive as living meat for the wasps’ young.
- Astronomy
The planet-hunting Kepler space telescope is dead
The Kepler space telescope is officially out of fuel and will hunt planets no more, NASA announced.
- Ecosystems
How researchers flinging salmon inadvertently spurred tree growth
Scientists studying salmon in Alaska flung dead fish into the forest. After 20 years, the nutrients from those carcasses sped up tree growth.
- Neuroscience
Young people’s memories improved when they stopped using marijuana
After just a week of not using pot, teens’ and young adults’ abilities to remember lists of words got better, a small study finds.
- Animals
If you want to believe your home’s bug free, don’t read this book
‘Never Home Alone’ reveals the hidden world living in human-made spaces.
- Chemistry
New devices could help turn atmospheric CO2 into useful supplies
New electrochemical cells transform carbon monoxide into useful chemical compounds like ethylene and acetate much more efficiently than their predecessors.
- Archaeology
People in the Pacific Northwest smoked tobacco long before Europeans showed up
Ancient indigenous groups in the Pacific Northwest used tobacco roughly 600 years before European settlers ventured west with the plant.
- Archaeology
Ancient South Americans tasted chocolate 1,500 years before anyone else
Artifacts with traces of cacao push back the known date for when the plant was first domesticated by 1,500 years.
- Chemistry
Zapping substances with electrons can quickly map chemical structures
Speedy molecular identification originally developed for proteins might benefit crime lab researchers and drugmakers.
