Neuroscience
Music soothes the aging brain in film ‘Alive Inside’
A social worker highlighted in a new documentary goes on a quest to bring tunes to nursing homes.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Environment
Ups and downs in the quest for clean air
Satellite views reveal good news on U.S. air pollution trends.
Notebook
Animals
Elephant’s big nose wins most sensitive sniffer
A genetic survey reveals that African elephants harbor more smell sensors than any other known animal.
Features
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NASA bets on asteroid mission as best path to Mars
NASA wants to bag an asteroid using robotic arms or an enormous sack and place the rock in the moon’s orbit for study. This may keep astronauts working but not, as NASA claims, get them Mars-ready.
More Stories from the August 23, 2014 issue
- Health & Medicine
Bone marrow transplant could reverse sickle cell in adults
A relatively mild treatment involving radiation and chemo followed by a bone marrow transplant may treat sickle cell disease in adults.
- Life
Fiber optics in mammals’ eyes separate colors
Specialized cells in the retina separate different wavelengths of light to enable sharp vision during the day without harming night vision.
- Life
Domesticated animals’ juvenile appearance tied to embryonic cells
Mild defects in embryonic cells could explain physical similarities along with tameness across domesticated species.
- Astronomy
Voyager may not have entered interstellar space, after all
Two scientists argue that Voyager 1 space probe is still in solar bubble, despite NASA’s announcements to the contrary.
- Life
Pregnancy disorder shares aspects with Alzheimer’s
Misfolded proteins, the hallmark of Alzheimer’s and mad cow diseases, are found in urine of women with preeclampsia.
- Anthropology
Romanian cave holds some of the oldest human footprints
A group of Homo sapiens left footprints about 36,500 years ago, not 15,000 as scientists had thought.
- Tech
Wax-coated plastic morphs between soft and stiff
Heat-controlled materials could serve as skeleton for shape-shifting robots.
- Planetary Science
Comet ISON fell apart earlier than realized
Comet ISON disintegrated at least eight hours before it grazed the surface of the sun last fall, new observations show.
- Earth
Sandstone structures form without cement
Lasting sandstone structures form when weighed-down sand locks into stable formations, researchers find in laboratory experiment.
- Animals
Termite soldiers locate battles with vibrational clues
To locate invasions, termite soldiers listen for millisecond-long delays in vibrational distress signals sent out by other soldiers.
- Health & Medicine
Carbs and gut microbes fuel colon cancer
Western nations experience high levels of colon cancer, and carbo-loading gut microbes might explain why, says a new study in mice.
- Genetics
Hints about schizophrenia emerge from genetic study
From thousands of genomes, researchers pinpoint dozens of DNA changes that may underlie schizophrenia
- Life
Mouse sperm parties make for straight swimmers
Mouse sperm hunt for eggs in packs, but grouping doesn’t boost speed. Instead, gangs of the reproductive cells move in straighter lines.
- Ecosystems
Moose drool can undermine grass defenses
Saliva from moose and reindeer sabotages plants’ chemical weaponry.
- Materials Science
Weird materials could make faster computers
Topological insulators could speed up how computers switch between 1s and 0s.
- Paleontology
Feathered dinosaurs may have been the rule, not the exception
Newly discovered fossil suggests feathers may have been common among all dinosaur species.
- Chemistry
Molecular cage traps rare gases
Organic compound could cull valuable xenon from the air and detect cancer-causing radon in homes.
- Environment
Wild monkeys near Fukushima have low blood cell counts
Primates near the ill-fated nuclear power plant may have been affected by radiation.
- Health & Medicine
Long-term Parkinson’s treatment sheds bad rep
Prolonged used of levodopa doesn’t increase the severity of side effects from the Parkinson’s drug, new research shows.
- Earth
Merging magma can set off supervolcanoes in less than 10,000 years
The reconstruction of a massive eruption 4.5 million years ago near Yellowstone National Park suggests that magma chambers merging together beneath a supervolcano can trigger explosions in less than 10,000 years.
- Environment
Recycled water may flood urban parks with dangerous germs
Irrigating city parks with recycled water may flood the soil with drug-resistant microbes.
- Earth
Early life probably fell victim to massive space rocks
Planet-sterilizing impacts probably snuffed out early life on Earth until around 4.3 billion years ago.
- Math
Father-son mathematicians fold math into fonts
MIT’s Erik and Martin Demaine create puzzle typefaces to test new ideas.
- Animals
Here’s your chance to see the last passenger pigeon
On display for the 100th anniversary of her species’ extinction, the final passenger pigeon specimen looks pretty good.
- Earth
Cloud seeding fueled fire about weather modification
Experiments in 1964 resulted in “exploding” clouds.
- Cosmology
Cosmologist’s ‘Cosmic Cocktail’ is a refreshing read
Katherine Freese shares her insights as a scientist studying dark matter and other mysterious components of the universe.
- Health & Medicine
Survey catalogs what is stressing out Americans
Along with work and other responsibilities, health problems are prominent causes of stress.
