Tech
‘Rise of the Robots’ chronicles race to build disaster-relief bots
NOVA’s “Rise of the Robots” lays out the difficulties of making humanoid robots that can help out in disasters.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Life
Images probe artery-hardening plaques
Zooming in on hardened arteries shows researchers which plaques pose heart attack risks.
Notebook
Astronomy
Clues left at a galactic hit-and-run
Scientists may have discovered a dwarf galaxy that triggered a “galaxy quake” when it buzzed by the Milky Way a few hundred million years ago.
Features
-
Ocean’s plastics offer a floating fortress to a mess of microbes
Microbes take up residence on ocean plastics, potentially causing changes in ocean environments.
-
Support grows for a return to ice giants Uranus and Neptune
Thirty years ago, Voyager 2 cruised past Uranus and then on to Neptune. Now planetary scientists think it’s time to go back.
More Stories from the February 20, 2016 issue
- Oceans
Phytoplankton flunk photosynthesis efficiency test
Nutrient-poor ocean waters make phytoplankton photosynthesis inefficient
- Life
Signs of food allergies may be present at birth
Overactive immune cells may prime babies for food allergies.
- Environment
PCB levels still high in Europe’s killer whales, smaller dolphins
PCBs banned for decades still show up at extremely high concentrations in Europe’s killer whales and other dolphins.
- Archaeology
Humans visited Arctic earlier than thought
Human weapon injuries on mammoth bones show humans were in the Arctic up to 15,000 years earlier than researchers thought.
- Neuroscience
Measuring brain waves may help predict a patient’s response to anesthesia
Brain signatures hint at whether a person will resist or succumb to anesthesia.
- Oceans
Ocean heating doubles
Earth’s oceans now absorb twice as much heat as they did 18 years ago, with more than a third of that warmth going into the ocean depths.
- Life
MicroRNAs manage gut microbes
MicroRNAs mold gut microbes into healthier communities for the host.
- Anthropology
Attack 10,000 years ago is earliest known act of warfare
Human skeletons unearthed in East Africa show signs of a roughly 10,000-year-old lethal raid.
- Planetary Science
Time running out on comet lander
Philae’s days are numbered as temperatures on comet 67P drop and attempts to communicate with the lander fail.
- Climate
2015 smashed heat records
Spurred by global warming and a “super El Niño,” 2015 now ranks as the warmest year since record-keeping began in 1880.
- Health & Medicine
Rapid spread of Zika virus in the Americas raises alarm
After blazing through Brazil, a mosquito-borne virus called Zika, which may cause birth defects, is now poised to jump to the United States.
- Environment
Converted milk proteins clean pollution, strike gold
A new membrane uses sticky amyloid proteins to trap contaminants in water.
- Tech
Online reading behavior predicts stock movements
People's current web surfing patterns predict future stock movements. The discovery could help authorities to stabilize financial markets.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum histories get all tangled up
Multiple versions of history may be quantum entangled just like particles, a new experiment suggests.
- Neuroscience
Immune system gene leads to schizophrenia clue
Excessive snipping of nerve cell connections may contribute to schizophrenia.
- Planetary Science
Computer simulations heat up hunt for Planet Nine
A giant planet in the far outer solar system could explain orbital oddities of bodies in the fringes of the Kuiper belt.
- Animals
Harvester ants are restless, enigmatic architects
Florida harvester ants dig complex, curly nests over, then leave and do it again.
- Science & Society
Soviets nailed first landing on moon
The first spacecraft to safely land on the moon touched down on the lunar surface in 1966.
- Agriculture
Plants trick bacteria into attacking too soon
Scientists have discovered that a plant compound interferes with bacterial communication.
- Tech
Pill measures gut gas
A gas-sensing ingestible capsule tested in pigs could someday help doctors assess people’s gastrointestinal health.
- Animals
Tegu lizards warm up for mating
Despite their cold-blooded reputation, tegu lizards boost their body heat while on the prowl for a mate, biologists report online January 22 in Science Advances.
- Genetics
Bubonic plague hung out in Europe
The plague bacterium Yersinia pestis may have lurked in a medieval European reservoir for at least 300 years, researchers from Germany suggest January 13 in PLOS ONE.
