Earth
‘Turning to Stone’ paints rocks as storytellers and mentors
Part memoir, part geology explainer, Marcia Bjornerud’s latest book explores the hidden wisdom of Earth’s rocks.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
A newly approved ‘living drug’ could save more cancer patients’ lives
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte, or TIL, therapy is the first T cell treatment for solid tumors. It fights melanoma and maybe other cancers too.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Math
This intricate maze connects the dots on quasicrystal surfaces
The winding loop touches every point without crossing itself and could help make a unique class of atomic structures more efficient catalysts, scientists say.
Notebook
Animals
Komodo dragon teeth get their strength from an iron coat
Studying the reptile’s ironclad teeth in more detail could help solve a dinosaur dental mystery.
Features
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Aimee Grant investigates the needs of autistic people
The public health researcher focuses on what kinds of support people with autism need rather than on treating the condition as a disease to cure.
More Stories from the August 24, 2024 issue
- Animals
Pheromone fingers may help poison frogs mate
Specialized glands in the fingertips of some males may produce seductive chemical signals.
- Astronomy
The North Star is much heavier than previously thought
Polaris is about five times as massive as the sun, new observations reveal. That’s around 50 percent heavier than what an earlier study found.
- Oceans
In a seafloor surprise, metal-rich chunks may generate deep-sea oxygen
Instead of sinking from the surface, some deep-sea oxygen may be created by battery-like nodules that split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
- Health & Medicine
Getting drugs into the brain is hard. Maybe a parasite can do the job
Researchers want to harness the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis to ferry drugs, but some question if the risks can be eliminated.
- Health & Medicine
Bird flu viruses may infect mammary glands more commonly than thought
H5N1 turning up in cow milk was a big hint. The virus circulating in U.S. cows can infect the mammary glands of mice and ferrets, too.
- Animals
Why a small seabird dares to fly toward cyclones
Tracking data show that Desertas petrels often veer toward cyclones and follow in their wake, perhaps to catch prey drawn to the surface.
- Animals
A risk-tolerant immune system may enable house sparrows’ wanderlust
Birds that are willing to eat seed spiked with chicken poop have higher expression levels of a gut immunity gene, a new study finds.
- Space
Moonquakes are much more common than thought, Apollo data suggest
The discovery of 22,000 previously unseen moonquakes, plus a new idea of what causes them, could help us better prepare for trips there.
- Particle Physics
Dark matter experiments get a first peek at the ‘neutrino fog’
The hint of fog marks a new way to observe neutrinos, but points to the beginning of the end for this type of dark matter detection.
- Physics
A black hole made from pure light is impossible, thanks to quantum physics
A “kugelblitz” is a black hole made of concentrated electromagnetic energy. But it’s not possible to make one, according to new calculations.
- Animals
Static electricity may help butterflies and moths gather pollen on the fly
Electrostatically charged lepidopterans could draw pollen out of flowers without touching the blooms, computer simulations suggest.
- Genetics
Freeze-drying turned a woolly mammoth’s DNA into 3-D ‘chromoglass’
A new technique for probing the 3-D structure of ancient DNA may help scientists learn how extinct animals functioned, not just what they looked like.
- Artificial Intelligence
Want to spot a deepfake? The eyes could be a giveaway
Reflections in the eyes of AI-generated images of people don’t always match up, researchers report.
- Health & Medicine
HIV prevention may only require two injections per year
There were no new HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women taking a new PrEP formulation, a twice-yearly shot of the drug lenacapavir.
- Chemistry
A new element on the periodic table might be within reach
Scientists made the known element 116 with a beam of titanium atoms, a technique that could be used to make the undiscovered element 120.
- Earth
Earthquakes added to Pompeii’s death toll
Broken bodies found at the archaeological site indicate that earthquakes played a role in the legendary tragedy.
- Chemistry
Tycho Brahe dabbled in alchemy. Broken glassware is revealing his recipes
The shards contain nine metals that the famous astronomer may have used, including one not formally identified until 180 years after his death.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, antibiotic resistant bacteria became a problem outside hospitals
Infections from drug-resistant bacteria have skyrocketed over the last 50 years. Now, new technologies could help doctors save lives.
