Archaeology
‘Fruit from the Sands’ explores the Silk Road origins of apples, tea and more
A new book explains how many of today’s popular foods got started on Central Asia’s ancient Silk Road trade networks.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Scientists seek materials that defy friction at the atomic level
Scientists investigate superslippery materials and other unusual friction feats.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Health & Medicine
Tiny glasses help reveal how praying mantises can see in 3-D
Newfound nerve cells in praying mantises help detect different views that each of the insects’ eyes sees, a mismatch that creates depth perception.
Notebook
Astronomy
The earliest known galaxy merger occurred shortly after the Big Bang
Telescopes show two distant blobs of stars and gas swirling around each other in the young universe.
Features
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Positive attitudes about aging may pay off in better health
Research into the mind-body connection shows that attitude is everything when it comes to healthy aging.
More Stories from the August 3, 2019 issue
- Health & Medicine
Rotavirus vaccines may lower kids’ chances of getting type 1 diabetes
Vaccination against rotavirus is associated with a reduced incidence of type 1 diabetes in children, according to an analysis of U.S. insurance data.
- Astronomy
The highest-energy photons ever seen hail from the Crab Nebula
An experiment in Tibet spotted photons with over 100 trillion electron volts of energy.
- Archaeology
Capuchin monkeys’ stone-tool use has evolved over 3,000 years
A Brazilian archaeological site reveals capuchins’ long history of practical alterations to pounding implements, researchers say.
- Life
These fungi drug cicadas with psilocybin or amphetamine to make them mate nonstop
Massospora fungi use a compound found in magic mushrooms or an amphetamine to drive infected cicadas to mate and mate and mate.
- Archaeology
Peru’s famous Nazca Lines may include drawings of exotic birds
Pre-Inca people depicted winged fliers from far away in landscape art.
- Health & Medicine
Thick calluses don’t make feet any less sensitive
Bare feet that develop thick calluses are just as sensitive as shoe-clad feet, a study in Kenya finds.
- Health & Medicine
In mice, a high-fat diet cuts a ‘brake’ used to control appetite
A fatty diet changes the behavior of key appetite-regulating cells in a mouse brain.
- Astronomy
In a first, telescopes tracked a lone fast radio burst to a faraway galaxy
First-time observations suggest that the cause of one-time fast radio bursts is different from what triggers repeatedly flashing radio bursts.
- Materials Science
Latest claim of turning hydrogen into a metal may be the most solid yet
If true, the study would complete a decades-long quest to find the elusive material. But such claims have been made prematurely many times before.
- Climate
CO2 emissions are on track to take us beyond 1.5 degrees of global warming
Current and planned infrastructure will exceed the level of emissions that would keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a new analysis finds.
- Ecosystems
Why some insect eggs are spherical while others look like hot dogs
Analyzing a new database of insect eggs’ sizes and shapes suggests that where eggs are laid helps explain some of their diversity of forms.
- Neuroscience
This brain region may be why some robots send chills down your spine
Scientists may have traced the source of the “uncanny valley” sensation in the brain.
- Anthropology
Ancient DNA reveals the origins of the Philistines
A mysterious Biblical-era population may have fled Bronze Age calamities.
- Health & Medicine
Rogue immune cells can infiltrate old brains
Killer T cells get into older brains where they may make mischief, a study in mice and postmortem human brain tissue finds.
- Oceans
A mysterious coral disease is ravaging Caribbean reefs
Scientists are racing to learn what’s behind a disease that’s “annihilating” whole coral species in hopes of stopping it.
- Anthropology
A Greek skull may belong to the oldest human found outside of Africa
Humans possibly reached southeastern Europe by 210,000 years ago.
- Neuroscience
Both fish and humans have REM-like sleep
Sleeping zebrafish have brain and body activity similar to snoozing mammals, suggesting that sleep evolved at least 450 million years ago.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, a drug that crippled a generation found new life as a leprosy treatment
In 1969, a drug that crippled a generation found new life as a treatment for leprosy.
- Oceans
The largest seaweed bloom ever detected spanned the Atlantic in 2018
Nutrient-rich water from the Amazon River may be helping massive seaweed mats to flourish each summer in the Atlantic Ocean.
