Science & Society
‘The Nature of Life and Death’ spotlights pollen’s role in solving crimes
In ‘The Nature of Life and Death,’ botanist Patricia Wiltshire recounts some of her most memorable cases.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Debate over the universe’s expansion rate may unravel physics. Is it a crisis?
Measurements of the Hubble constant don’t line up. Scientists debate what that means.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Earth
A new map is the best view yet of how fast Antarctica is shedding ice
Stitching together data from several satellite missions allowed scientists to create the most comprehensive map of Antarctic ice flow ever.
Notebook
Humans
Even without concussions, just one football season may damage players’ brains
A group of college football players underwent brain scans after a season of play. The results suggest the sport could impact neural signaling.
Features
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Culture helps shape when babies learn to walk
The culture in which a baby is raised can accelerate or slow down the development of early motor skills. Does it matter?
More Stories from the September 14, 2019 issue
- Space
A proposed space telescope would use Earth’s atmosphere as a lens
One astronomer has a bold solution to the high cost of building big telescopes.
- Earth
One in 4 people lives in places at high risk of running out of water
An update to the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas reveals that 17 countries withdraw more than 80 percent of water available yearly.
- Humans
A new FDA-approved drug takes aim at a deadly form of tuberculosis
The antibiotic could help tackle extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, which kills tens of thousands each year.
- Life
Big and bold wasp queens may create more successful colonies
A paper wasp queen’s personality and body size could help predict whether the nest she has founded will thrive.
- Climate
Climate change may make El Niño and La Niña less predictable
Atlantic Niñas and Niños have been fairly reliable bellwethers for severe El Niño and La Niña events in the Pacific. A warming world may change that.
- Space
A planetary body may have smashed into Jupiter, creating its weird core
A planetary body smashing into Jupiter may have jostled the gas giant’s insides during its formative years, creating the strange interior seen today.
- Earth
Fluid in superdeep diamonds may be from some of Earth’s oldest unchanged material
Primordial rock deep in the mantle and dating to just after Earth’s formation could yield insights about the planet’s formation and evolution
- Life
Alzheimer’s targets brain cells that help people stay awake
Nerve cells in the brain that are tied to wakefulness are destroyed in people with Alzheimer’s, a finding that may refocus dementia research.
- Health & Medicine
High blood pressure throughout middle age may increase the risk of dementia
A pattern of high blood pressure during midlife followed by high or low readings in one’s golden years is linked to dementia.
- Space
For an asteroid, Ryugu has surprisingly little dust on its surface
Ryugu lacks the dust that some other space rocks have. The near-Earth asteroid may hide the fine debris inside porous rocks or eject it into space.
- Humans
Engraved bones reveal that symbolism had ancient roots in East Asia
Denisovans might have etched line patterns on two animal bone fragments more than 100,000 years ago in what’s now northern China.
- Earth
The worst wildfires can send smoke high enough to affect the ozone layer
Pyrocumulonimbus clouds can send soot and other damaging particles 23 kilometers into the air
- Physics
New cloaking devices could hide objects from water waves and currents
Specially designed materials could help prevent boats from rocking too violently in harbors, researchers say.
- Chemistry
Chemists have created and imaged a new form of carbon
A new molecule takes its place among buckyballs, carbon nanotubes and other odd forms of carbon.
- Life
Electrodes show a glimpse of memories emerging in a brain
Nerve cells in an important memory center in the brain sync their firing and create fast ripples of activity seconds before a recollection resurfaces.
- Life
Why people with celiac disease suffer so soon after eating gluten
In people with celiac disease, some T cells release immune chemicals within hours of encountering gluten, triggering the fast onset of symptoms.
- Space
Astronomers just quintupled the number of known repeating fast radio bursts
A Canadian telescope spotted eight more repeating fast radio bursts. What causes these cryptic flashes of radio waves from deep space remains unclear.
- Space
LIGO and Virgo probably spotted the first black hole swallowing up a neutron star
In a first, astronomers may just have detected gravitational waves from a black hole merging with a neutron star.
- Humans
The first chlamydia vaccine has passed a major test
A clinical trial for a vaccine against the sexually transmitted disease found that the product provoked an immune response.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, polio was still circulating in the United States
The world has never been closer to eradicating polio, but the disease could come roaring back where vaccination is spotty.
