Uncategorized
- Genetics
Doubling up on ‘junk DNA’ helps make us human
DNA duplicated only in humans may contribute to human traits and disease.
- Health & Medicine
Laws to protect athletes’ brains do reduce concussions — eventually
Recurrent concussions among high school athletes went down about 2½ years after traumatic brain injury laws were on the books, a new study finds.
- Life
The next wave of bird flu could be worse than ever
Deadly bird flu can pass between ferrets through the air.
- Tech
50 years ago, engineers tried catching commercial planes in nets
Fifty years ago, aviation experts tried helping commercial aircraft come to a stop during landing by catching them in massive nets. The idea crash-landed for commercial flights, but it’s still used in the military.
- Life
The physics of mosquito takeoffs shows why you don’t feel a thing
Even when full of blood, mosquitoes use more wing force than leg force to escape a host undetected — clue to why they’re so good at spreading disease.
- Health & Medicine
Animal study reveals how a fever early in pregnancy can cause birth defects
Using chicken embryos, study shows that heat itself, not an infectious agent, is the driving factor behind certain heart and facial birth defects.
- Artificial Intelligence
The newest AlphaGo mastered the game with no human input
AlphaGo Zero is the first AI system of its kind to learn the game just by playing against itself.
- Science & Society
Conspiring with engineers helps make science great
Acting Editor in Chief Elizabeth Quill says the passion to acquire knowledge and apply it lives in both engineers and scientists.
- Particle Physics
Readers question photons colliding, black sea snakes and more
Readers had questions about brain flexibility, black sea snakes and photon collisions.
- Animals
Being a vampire can be brutal. Here’s how bloodsuckers get by.
Blood-sucking animals have specialized physiology and other tools to live on a diet rich in protein and lacking in some nutrients.
- Astronomy
Here’s what space toilets can teach us about finding signs of alien life
Lessons learned from flushing space toilets can help researchers plan life-hunting missions to icy moons.
- Earth
How volcanoes may have ended the dynasty of Ptolemy and Cleopatra
Volcanic ash in polar ice reveal a link between eruptions and the timing of revolts in Cleopatra’s Egypt.
