Uncategorized

Particle Physics

Upon further review, suspected new particle vanishes

Hints of a new particle at the LHC have disappeared.

Genetics

Rats offer clues to biology of alcoholism

Heavy-drinking rats are giving scientists new genetic clues to alcoholism.

Plants

Internal clock helps young sunflowers follow the sun

A circadian clock helps sunflowers follow the sun’s daily path across the sky

Earth

China’s mythical ‘Great Flood’ possibly rooted in real disaster

Folktales of an ancient flood that helped kick off Chinese civilization may reference a nearly 4,000-year-old deluge.

Health & Medicine

Zika vaccines work in rhesus monkeys

Three vaccines can protect rhesus monkeys from infection with Zika. One of them fended off viral strains from both Brazil and Puerto Rico.

Planetary Science

Ceres is more than just a space rock

Dawn spacecraft reveals that the dwarf planet Ceres hides a core of solid rock beneath an outer crust of minerals, salts and ices.

Animals

Diversity of indoor insects, spiders adds to life’s luxuries in high-income neighborhoods

A massive survey of indoor spiders and insects in town finds dozens of different scientific families in homes, more in high-income neighborhoods.

Neuroscience

Running doesn’t make rats forgetful

Running doesn’t seem to wipe out old memories in rats, concludes a new study that contradicts earlier reports suggesting that exercise does actually help old memories fade and new memories form — in other rodents.

Anthropology

Oldest evidence of cancer in human family tree found

Bony growths on fossils may push origins of this disease way back in the Stone Age.

Paleontology

Woolly mammoths’ last request: Got water?

Woolly mammoths survived on an Alaskan island thousands of years after mainland mammoths went extinct. But they died out when their lakes dried up, thanks to a warming climate and rising sea levels.

Health & Medicine

Mosquitoes in Florida now spreading Zika virus, health officials warn

Florida adds 10 new cases of locally acquired Zika infection, prompting the CDC to issue travel warning for pregnant women. Mosquitoes in Miami may be resistant to insecticides.

Archaeology

Parasitic worm eggs found on Silk Road latrine artifacts

Microscopic study of latrine finds indicates disease spread along ancient Asian trade route.