Paleontology
‘Dinosaurs Without Bones’ gives glimpse of long-gone life
Ichnologist Anthony J. Martin explains his research piecing together dinosaurs’ lives from footprints and other traces.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Neuroscience
Visualization offers view of a nerve cell’s dispatch center
To get a closer look at how messages move in the brain, researchers created a 3-D visualization that provides a clearer view of how nerve cells communicate.
Notebook
Animals
Look beyond pest species to find beauty in cockroaches
A few pest species give the group a bad name, but exotic roaches include an amazing diversity of colors and lifestyles.
Features
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Mammography’s limits becoming clear
It may be time to move way from blanket recommendations about mammography and empower women to decide for themselves, new work suggests.
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Dazzle or dust?
The unpredictable glow of galactic dust could undermine the biggest cosmological discovery in years.
More Stories from the June 28, 2014 issue
- Climate
Crop nutrients may drop as carbon dioxide rises
Many staple grains and legumes pack 5 to 10 percent less iron, zinc and protein when grown at carbon dioxide levels expected midcentury.
- Astronomy
Sun’s sibling spotted
A nearby star may have come from the same birth cluster as the sun; learning how to find other solar siblings could point the way to their common origin.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum cryptography could shed test for hackers
An added protection of a proposed quantum cryptography method makes eavesdropping nearly impossible.
- Life
In a surprise find, placentas harbor bacteria
Mouth bacteria make their way to the placenta. Some mixes may trigger premature birth.
- Neuroscience
Life span lengthens when mice feel less pain
When rodents are missing a sensory protein, their metabolism revs up and they live longer.
- Health & Medicine
Parasite protein offers new hope for malaria vaccine
A newly discovered malarial protein triggers the immune system to trap disease-causing parasites in red blood cells. The protein offers scientists a promising target for vaccines.
- Life
Flightless birds’ history upset by ancient DNA
The closest known relatives of New Zealand’s small, flightless kiwis were Madagascar’s elephant birds, so ancestors must have done some flying rather than just drifting with continents.
- Psychology
Recessions take a lasting toll on narcissism
Coming of age in hard economic times makes people less likely to feel superior and entitled later in life.
- Astronomy
Sun shines new life on Kepler space telescope
NASA approved a proposal to bring the crippled Kepler spacecraft back to life, using sunlight as balance to help the telescope search for planets and more.
- Life
Drab female birds had more colorful evolution
Males weren’t the main players in evolution of sex differences in avian plumage.
- Tech
Coffee beans sing distinct tune
Measuring the crackling noises made by roasting coffee beans could help engineers create automatic acoustic roasters.
- Particle Physics
Proton’s magnetic properties pinned down
A precise measurement of a proton’s magnetic properties could help reveal subtle differences between matter and antimatter.
- Climate
Violent storms may shatter sea ice
Tall waves’ effect on sea ice hints at troubled water in the future.
- Environment
Carbon dioxide levels hit landmark in Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere experienced the first full month with the greenhouse gas at or above the symbolic 400 parts per million level.
- Tech
Lasers heal damaged rodent teeth
Handheld laser spurs stem cells into action, regrowing dentin in drilled teeth.
- Archaeology
First pants worn by horse riders 3,000 years ago
A new study indicates horse-riding Asians wove and wore wool trousers by around 3,000 years ago.
- Life
Drug candidate takes new aim at MERS
An experimental drug that shuts down construction of virus-making factories could become a new weapon against MERS.
- Health & Medicine
Brain’s support cells play role in hunger
Once considered just helpers for neurons, astrocytes sense the hormone leptin and can change mice’s appetites.
- Genetics
How a genetic quirk makes hair naturally blond
Natural blonds don’t need hair dye. They have a variation on a genetic enhancer that dampens pigment production in their hair follicles, scientists say.
- Health & Medicine
Health risks of e-cigarettes emerge
Research uncovers a growing list of chemicals that end up in an e-cigarette user’s lungs, and one study finds that an e-cigarette’s vapors can increase the virulence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
- Neuroscience
Stem cell approach for Parkinson’s disease gets boost
Postmortem study finds Parkinson’s patients can retain transplanted neurons for years.
- Animals
See your lawn through a bird’s eyes with YardMap
A new web tool lets you map your outdoor spaces and wildlife habitat, helping scientists understand how birds use urban and suburban spaces.
- Tech
Self-driving cars are not a thing of the past
Engineers have not given up on self-driving cars. The focus has shifted from a mechanical approach to using batteries and GPS.
- Life
California mite becomes fastest land animal
Despite being the size of a sesame seed, the Paratarsotomus macropalpis mite can outpace Usain Bolt and even a cheetah in terms of body lengths per second.
- Science & Society
‘Prisoners, Lovers, and Spies’ reveals the secrets of invisible ink
Kristie Macrakis takes readers on a tour of invisible ink’s history and the need to hide information, from the earliest empires to the Internet age.
- Health & Medicine
Obesity on the rise globally
Some 2.1 billion people, almost 30 percent of the world’s population, are overweight or obese.
