Health & Medicine
Surgery museum holds wonders for the brave
Anatomical displays sit alongside art depicting medical history at the International Museum of Surgical Science.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Earth
Seismic signals chronicle deadly landslide
Washington state’s deadly Oso landslide was recorded in seismic waves.
Notebook
Paleontology
The dinosaur ‘chicken from hell’
Fossils suggest that a supersized chickenlike reptile called Anzu wyliei roamed what are now the Dakotas roughly 67 million years ago.
Features
-
Whooping cough bounces back
A new type of pertussis vaccine introduced in the late 1990s may have led to the return of a disease that was nearly eradicated 40 years ago. Public opposition to vaccination hasn’t helped matters.
-
Buying time when quakes hit
On the West Coast, geologists are developing an earthquake warning system that can provide seconds of notice before destructive shaking begins. The system could be ready before the next big quake hits.
More Stories from the April 19, 2014 issue
- Health & Medicine
Experimental drug no Methuselah formula
Compound lets mice live healthier lives but doesn't extend life span.
- Physics
Material’s magnetism tuned by temperature
Layered substance may lead to more reliable hard drives in the future.
- Astronomy
Galaxy drags trail of stars behind it
A Hubble Space Telescope image shows the galaxy ESO 137-001 dragging star trails behind it as it plows through the Norma galaxy cluster.
- Materials Science
Phosphorene introduced as graphene alternative
Sheets of ultrathin phosphorus could lead to faster semiconductor electronics.
- Physics
Shifting grains may explain earthquake lightning
Mysterious lightning before or during earthquakes could get its spark from underground shifting.
- Animals
Elephants can tell men’s voices from women’s
Amboseli elephants may pick out age and gender — and even distinguish between languages — when listening to human voices.
- Health & Medicine
MS milder when patients begin with higher vitamin D levels
Multiple sclerosis patients with low concentrations of vitamin D early in their disease have more nerve damage several years later.
- Neuroscience
Brain chemicals help worms live long and prosper
Serotonin and dopamine accompany long lives in C. elegans worms under caloric restriction.
- Neuroscience
Pianists learn better by playing
Pianists’ muscle memory helped them recognize incorrect notes.
- Paleontology
Fossil whale skull hints at echolocation’s origins
Ancestors of toothed whales used echolocation as early as 34 million years ago, analysis of a new fossil skull suggests.
- Chemistry
Milk protein a potential flame retardant
Protein found in milk offers a nontoxic way to extinguish fabric fires.
- Archaeology
Roman gladiator school digitally rebuilt
Imaging techniques unveil a 1,900-year-old Roman gladiators’ training center that’s buried beneath a site in Austria.
- Physics
A tractor beam reels in objects with sound
A tractor beam of focused sound waves has pulled on an object as large as a Toblerone chocolate bar.
- Space
Exoplanet oxygen may not signal alien life
Oxygen in an exoplanet atmosphere may come from water and ultraviolet light, not alien life.
- Genetics
Giant moa thrived before people reached New Zealand
Humans probably caused the extinction of giant wingless birds called moa in New Zealand, DNA evidence suggests.
- Plants
Fossil fern showcases ancient chromosomes
Fossil nuclei and chromosomes seen in a 180-million-year-old fern reveals that the plants have stayed mostly the same.
- Life
Human noses know more than 1 trillion odors
Sense of smell displays a vast reach in study of people’s ability to distinguish between scents.
- Animals
A parasitic cuckoo can be a good thing
Great spotted cuckoo chicks show that brood parasites may benefit their hosts.
- Climate
Kangaroo gut microbes make eco-friendly farts
Understanding kangaroos’ low-methane flatulence could help researchers lower greenhouse gas emissions from livestock.
- Science & Society
Millions of working mamas
It has been a long time since millions of American women working outside the home was big sociological news. Women are now 47 percent of the U.S. workforce.
- Animals
The Thing With Feathers
In the new book, "The Thing With Feathers," Noah Strycker brings people nose to beak with the plumed creatures he knows so well.
- Animals
See-through shrimp flex invisible muscle
Much of the body of a Pederson’s transparent shrimp looks like watery nothing, but it’s a superhero sort of nothing.
-
