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Animals

DNA from old hair helps confirm the macabre diet of two 19th century lions

Genetic analysis of cavity crud from two famed man-eating lions suggests the method could re-create diets of predators that lived thousands of years ago.

Physics

Radioactive beams give a real-time view of cancer treatment in mice

This first successful treatment of tumors with radioactive ion beams could one day lead to treating human patients’ tumors with millimeter precision.

Neuroscience

Hair pulling prompts one of the fastest known pain signals

The ouch of hair pulling is transmitted with the help of a protein used to sense light touches. These details could lead to new treatments.

Health & Medicine

A viral gene drive could offer a new approach to fighting herpes

A new gene drive can copy and paste itself into the genomes of herpes simplex viruses in mice. The end goal is a version that disables the virus in humans.

Science & Society

There’s a new term for attempting to own the wind: ventography

Nations established territorial claims underground to access oil and gas. Now they are expanding those claims upward to snag the wind.

Earth

What leads rivers to suddenly change course?

An analysis of satellite data could help predict where rivers will change their course and where their rerouted flows will go.

Paleontology

The largest arthropod to ever live finally has a head 

Fossils of an extinct giant millipede reveal new details about the arthropod’s anatomy.

Astronomy

Runaway stars could influence the cosmos far past their home galaxies

Dozens of stars fleeing a neighbor of the Milky Way suggest these escapees could have an outsized influence on their cosmic surroundings.

Chemistry

Work on protein structure and design wins the 2024 chemistry Nobel

David Baker figured out how to build entirely new proteins. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper developed an AI tool to predict protein structures.

Climate

Climate change fueled the fury of hurricanes Helene and Milton

Two new studies find climate change amped up sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, fueling the hurricanes' intensity.

Animals

To tell a right-trunked elephant from a lefty, check the wrinkles

Elephant trunks, more sci-fi face-tentacle than ho-hum mammal nose, are getting new scrutiny as researchers explore how the wrinkles grow.

Planetary Science

Europa Clipper has launched to solve an alien mystery

Launched October 14, the spacecraft will repeatedly buzz Europa in search of water, energy and organic compounds.