Science Ticker
A roundup of research and breaking news
- Life
Genetic tweak hints at why mammoths loved the cold
An altered temperature sensor helped mammoths adapt to the cold.
- Animals
Flatworm can self-fertilize by stabbing itself in the head
Hermaphroditic flatworms with hypodermic-style mating get sharp with themselves.
- Health & Medicine
Clot-snatching stroke treatment gets the green light
Snatching blood clots from the brain with a wire mesh stent is a new stroke treatment that is now supported in the United States.
- Neuroscience
Old fruit flies’ swagger restored with brain chemical dopamine
Replenishing the chemical communicator dopamine to a handful of nerve cells makes old flies feel frisky again.
- Earth
Leap second helps us with the reality of time
A leap second will be inserted at the end of the day on June 30.
- Neuroscience
Pain may come in his and hers
Males and females rely on different kinds of cells to carry pain signals, a mouse study suggests.
- Astronomy
Advice to a baby planet: Avoid black holes
A dust cloud looping around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole might have once been an infant planet.
- Plants
Poppy yields the final secret to making morphine
Scientists have successfully transplanted most of the morphine synthesis pathway from poppies to yeast. Now the final step is ready to be put in place.
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Tiny tweaks helped flu strains thwart 2014-2015 vaccine
Changes to the flu strains circulating around the Northern Hemisphere explain why last year’s flu vaccine didn’t work so well.
- Planetary Science
Rosetta mission extended until September 2016
The Rosetta spacecraft will explore comet 67P through September 2016 and then may go to sleep on the comet’s surface.
- Planetary Science
Pluto and Charon’s orbital dance captured in color
New Horizons has captured the first true-color movie of Pluto and Charon orbiting one another.
- Planetary Science
Evidence mounts for active volcanoes on Venus
The Venus Express orbiter detected possible signs of active volcanism on the planet next door.
