Science & Society
Historian traces rise of celebrity hominid fossils
In Seven Skeletons, Lydia Pyne explores the cultural histories of the most iconic fossil figures in human evolution.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Planetary Science
Spacecraft reveal diversity in solar system’s landscapes
The latest generation of interplanetary spacecraft have revealed diverse landscapes on planets, asteroids and comets throughout the solar system.
Notebook
Animals
Newly discovered big-headed ants use spines for support
Two newly discovered ant species provide new insights into spiny evolution.
Features
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CRISPR inspires new tricks to edit genes
CRISPR/Cas9 has been a rockstar gene-editing tool for just four years and it’s already being tweaked to do more things better.
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What Donkey Kong can tell us about how to study the brain
Neuroscience tools failed to reveal much about a simple microprocessor. What can they really tell us about the brain?
More Stories from the September 3, 2016 issue
- Life
Distinctions blur between wolf species
Red and eastern wolves might be gray wolf/coyote blends instead of distinct species
- Anthropology
Oldest evidence of cancer in human family tree found
Bony growths on fossils may push origins of this disease way back in the Stone Age.
- Neuroscience
Running doesn’t make rats forgetful
Running doesn’t seem to wipe out old memories in rats, concludes a new study that contradicts earlier reports suggesting that exercise does actually help old memories fade and new memories form — in other rodents.
- Animals
Diversity of indoor insects, spiders adds to life’s luxuries in high-income neighborhoods
A massive survey of indoor spiders and insects in town finds dozens of different scientific families in homes, more in high-income neighborhoods.
- Planetary Science
Ceres is more than just a space rock
Dawn spacecraft reveals that the dwarf planet Ceres hides a core of solid rock beneath an outer crust of minerals, salts and ices.
- Earth
China’s mythical ‘Great Flood’ possibly rooted in real disaster
Folktales of an ancient flood that helped kick off Chinese civilization may reference a nearly 4,000-year-old deluge.
- Health & Medicine
Zika vaccines work in rhesus monkeys
Three vaccines can protect rhesus monkeys from infection with Zika. One of them fended off viral strains from both Brazil and Puerto Rico.
- Genetics
Rats offer clues to biology of alcoholism
Heavy-drinking rats are giving scientists new genetic clues to alcoholism.
- Particle Physics
Upon further review, suspected new particle vanishes
Hints of a new particle at the LHC have disappeared.
- Physics
LIGO’s black holes may be dark matter
Two analyses indicate that LIGO could have detected black holes that formed just after the Big Bang.
- Neuroscience
‘Neural dust’ can listen to body’s electrical signals
Tiny crystals can detect electrical signals in nerves and muscles of rats.
- Climate
India’s monsoon winds trace back nearly 13 million years
The intense monsoon winds that carry torrential rain to India each year first started blowing around 12.9 million years ago, new research suggests.
- Particle Physics
Cooling stars hint at dark matter particles
Stars that cool faster than expected can be explained by hypothetical particles called axions.
- Anthropology
Notorious ‘ape-man’ fossil hoax pinned on one wrongdoer
New Piltdown Man study pegs infamous ‘ape-man’ skull forgery on one well-informed culprit.
- Particle Physics
New data give clearer picture of Higgs boson
Scientists are carefully measuring the Higgs boson’s properties.
- Astronomy
Dark matter candidate particles are a no-show in Hitomi data
Before the Hitomi satellite broke apart, it captured data that cast further doubt on evidence of X-rays from dark matter particles in a galaxy cluster.
- Life
‘Promiscuous’ enzymes can compensate for disabled genes
Promiscuous enzymes can step in when bacteria lose genes they need to function.
- Life
For bacteria, assassination can breed cooperation
Cholera bacteria stabbing each other can encourage the evolution of cooperation.
- Life
Two stationary kinds of bacteria can move when mixed
Bacteria stuck when alone on a dry surface get moving — and get faster — when they evolve together.
- Genetics
Darwin’s Dogs wants your dog’s DNA
The Darwin’s Dogs citizen science project is collecting canine DNA to better understand dog genetics and behavior.
- Neuroscience
Fentanyl’s death toll is rising
The ability of fentanyl, an opioid, to freeze chest muscles within minutes may be to blame for some overdoses, a new autopsy study shows.
- Health & Medicine
Cornea donation may have sex bias
Women receiving a corneal transplant do better when their donors are female, new research finds.
- Neuroscience
Computers refine epilepsy treatment
Surgeons harnessed computers in 1966 to pinpoint source of epilepsy in the brain.
- Plants
How a tomato plant foils a dreaded vampire vine
Tomatoes can foil a dodder plant attack by getting scared and scabbing over.
- Climate
Global warming amplified death toll during 2003 European heat wave
Climate change caused hundreds of fatalities in London and Paris during the 2003 European heat wave, simulations suggest.
- Animals
Colugo genome reveals gliders as primate cousins
New genetic analysis suggests gliding mammals called colugos are actually sisters to modern primates.
- Genetics
Scientists get a glimpse of chemical tagging in live brains
For the first time scientists can see where molecular tags known as epigenetic marks are placed in the brain.
