Life
The board game Oceans captures the beauty and ferocity of marine life
North Star Games' Oceans refines the gameplay of its predecessor, Evolution, and creates an immersive, nuanced game world.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
With a litter of tactics, scientists work to tame cat allergies
New research may reduce the allergen levels of house cats or make people less reactive to our feline friends.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Life
How bacteria create flower art
Different types of microbes growing in lab dishes can push each other to make floral patterns.
Notebook
Animals
A biochemist’s extraction of data from honey honors her beekeeper father
Tests of proteins in honey could one day be used to figure out what bees are pollinating and which pathogens they carry.
Features
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The U.S. power grid desperately needs upgrades to handle climate change
The climate is changing faster than the U.S. power grid is adapting. Smarter grids and smaller grids could help.
More Stories from the February 15, 2020 issue
- Earth
Volcanic gas bursts probably didn’t kill off the dinosaurs
A new timeline for massive bursts of volcanic gases suggests the Deccan Traps eruptions weren’t the real dinosaur killer 66 million years ago.
- Life
‘PigeonBot’ is the first robot that can bend its wings like a real bird
Insights into the joint movements and feather surface structures that help birds control their wing shape could help robotic flyers move more deftly.
- Environment
50 years ago, protests and promises launched the Trans-Alaska Pipeline
50 years ago, the upcoming Trans-Alaska Pipeline prompted an economic boom amid outrage from environmental and Native American groups.
- Life
How pandas use their heads as a kind of extra limb for climbing
Short legs on a stout bear body means pandas use a rare technique to climb up a tree.
- Earth
A 2.2-billion-year-old crater is Earth’s oldest recorded meteorite impact
The newly dated Yarrabubba crater in Western Australia extends Earth’s impact record by more than 200 million years.
- Planetary Science
For the first time, an asteroid has been found nearer to the sun than Venus
A space rock dubbed 2020 AV2, found in close orbit around the sun, probably got there after a series of close encounters with rocky planets.
- Anthropology
Neandertals dove and harvested clamshells for tools near Italy’s shores
The discovery of sharpened shells broadens the reputation of Stone Age human relatives: Neandertals weren’t just one-trick mammoth hunters.
- Health & Medicine
A new drug lowers levels of a protein related to ‘bad’ cholesterol
The next clinical trial will determine if a drug targeting a protein that carries fat and cholesterol reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke.
- Microbes
Microbes slowed by one drug can rapidly develop resistance to another
Hunkering down in a dormant, tolerant state may make it easier for infectious bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotics.
- Genetics
Ancient kids’ DNA reveals new insights into how Africa was populated
Four long-dead youngsters from west-central Africa have opened a window on humankind’s far-flung African origins.
- Life
The ‘Blob,’ a massive marine heat wave, led to an unprecedented seabird die-off
Scientists have linked thousands of dead common murres in 2015–2016 to food web changes caused by a long-lasting marine heat wave nicknamed the Blob.
- Space
Phosphorus, a key ingredient of life, has been found in a newborn star system
Astrochemists map phosphorus-bearing molecules in a star-forming cloud, giving clues to how this vital element may have arrived on Earth.
- Health & Medicine
Exploding cancer cells can cause serious side effects in CAR-T cell therapies
Blocking a protein caused cancer cells targeted with CAR-T cell immunotherapy to shrink rather than burst, which may help reduce inflammation.
- Archaeology
A 3-D printed vocal tract lets an ancient mummy speak from beyond the grave
A re-created version of a mummy’s vocal tract reveals what this ancient Egyptian might have sounded like.
- Space
A second planet may orbit Proxima Centauri
The star closest to the sun may harbor another planet, this one much more massive and colder than Earth.
- Space
This ancient stardust is the oldest ever to be examined in a lab
Tiny grains of stardust that formed long before our solar system are giving new insight into star formation in the Milky Way.
- Physics
The fastest-spinning object ever made could help spot quantum friction in a vacuum
Scientists have developed a torque sensor made with a nanoparticle that can spin more than 300 billion times a minute.
- Health & Medicine
Hairy cells in the nose called brush cells may be involved in causing allergies
Some hairy cells in the nose may trigger sneezing and allergies to dust mites, mold and other substances, new work with mice suggests.
- Life
Sparkly exoskeletons may help camouflage beetles from predators
Iridescence, normally thought to help insects stand out, can also camouflage beetles from predators, according to new experimental evidence.
