Researchers found bacterial cells so large they are easily visible to the naked eye, challenging ideas about how large microbes can get.
Tag Archives: Science (Journal)
Centenarian Tortoises May Set the Standard for Anti-Aging
Tortoises and turtles don’t just live for a long time — they barely age while they live.
‘Wholly Unexpected’: These Polar Bears Can Survive With Less Sea Ice
The overall threat to the animals from climate change remains, but a new finding suggests that small numbers might survive for longer as the Arctic warms.
Asteroid Samples May ‘Rewrite the Chemistry of the Solar System’
The flecks of rock were brought back to Earth by the Japanese space mission Hayabusa2 in December 2020.
Giraffes May Be Long-Necked for Fights, Not Just Food
Evolutionary theories said giraffes developed their height to get to better eats, but ancestors may have gained the advantage through head-butting battles.
In Warming World Oceans Risk Mass Extinctions, Model Shows
A new study finds that if fossil fuel emissions continue apace, the oceans could experience a mass extinction by 2300. There is still time to avoid it.
They’re All Good Dogs, and It Has Nothing to Do With Their Breed
Retrievers that don’t retrieve and Papillons that point are all possible because the genes that shape dog behavior predate modern breeding that focuses on appearance, researchers find.
These Small, Cheap Devices Help Monitor Haiti’s Earthquakes
When conventional seismometers in Haiti failed before the 2010 quake, less sophisticated devices operated by citizen scientists helped seismic researchers fill in the blanks.
Epstein-Barr Virus May Play Role in Multiple Sclerosis Development
In a study of members of the Armed Forces, people who developed multiple sclerosis first had Epstein-Barr virus.
An Ichthyosaur With a Grand Piano-Size Head and a Big Appetite
Scientists have described a giant new species of ichthyosaur that evolved its 55-foot-long body size only a few million years after the lizards returned to the seas.
Tuskless Elephants Escape Poachers, but May Evolve New Problems
Scientists identified the genes that played a role in many female elephants of Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park being born without tusks.
How Hungry Sea Otters Affect the Sex Lives of Sea Grass
A habit that appeared damaging at first glance seems to make oceanic ecosystems more resilient, scientists found.
Ancient Footprints Push Back Date of Human Arrival in the Americas
Human footprints found in New Mexico are about 23,000 years old, a study reported, suggesting that people may have arrived long before the Ice Age’s glaciers melted.
The New Science on How We Burn Calories
How could that change our understanding about, for starters, chronic disease, aging and obesity?
Exoskeleton Suits: A New Device to Help You Walk and Run Better
Scientists are developing devices and clothing that make running and walking easier and more enjoyable.
What We Think We Know About Metabolism May Be Wrong
A new study challenges assumptions about energy expenditure by people, including the idea that metabolism slows at middle age.
Squirrel Parkour Artists Are as Smart as They Are Athletic
Picking a launch spot, sticking a landing, throwing in a little parkour and recovering from mistakes: Squirrels do it all.
Inside Mars, NASA’s InSight Mission Mapped Surprises Down to the Core
NASA’s InSight mission revealed Mars’s inner workings down to its core, highlighting great differences of the red planet from our blue world.
Australia’s Trash Parrots Invent New Skill in Suburbs
Sydney’s clever and adaptable sulfur-crested cockatoos learn how to pry open garbage bins by watching one another.
Cauliflower and Chaos, Fractals in Every Floret
Scientists take a crack at recreating the hypnotic fractal spirals of the Romanesco cauliflower.
Sharks Nearly Went Extinct 19 Million Years Ago From Mystery Event
Analysis of the fossil record shows a mysterious mass extinction that decimated the diversity of sharks in the world’s oceans, and they’ve never fully recovered.
More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry Into Coronavirus Origins
Researchers urge an open mind, saying lack of evidence leaves theories of natural spillover and laboratory leak both viable.
Covid Pandemic Demands Air Quality Changes in the Workplace, Researchers Say
The researchers issued a call to action to improve indoor air quality as a safeguard against the spread of contagions like the coronavirus.
Extraterrestrial Plutonium Atoms Turn Up on Ocean Bottom
The rare form of the element found on the Pacific seabed points to its violent birth in colliding stars.
Meet the Other Social Influencers of the Animal Kingdom
Culture, once considered exclusive to humans, turns out to be widespread in nature.
Imagine, Surgery Without a Scar
A new study shows that a 20-year-old drug prevents scarring in mice. If it works on humans, it could change the lives of those with disfiguring wounds.
How Many Tyrannosaurus Rexes Ever Lived on Earth? Here’s a New Clue.
An estimation of the iconic predator’s total population can teach us things about dinosaurs that fossils cannot.
The Water on Mars Vanished. This Might Be Where It Went.
Mars once had rivers, lakes and seas. Although the planet is now desert dry, scientists say most of the water is still there, just locked up in rocks.
How Do Blind Worms See the Color Blue?
Eyeless roundworms may have hacked other cellular warning systems to give themselves a form of color vision.
The Outsized Influence of Teen T. Rex and Other Young Dinosaurs
A deep dive into dinosaur data suggests that teenage T. rexes and other juvenile carnivores shaped their ecosystems.
A Famous Black Hole Gets a Massive Update
Cygnus X-1, one of the first identified black holes, is much weightier than expected, raising new questions about how such objects form.
A Hitchhiker’s Guide to an Ancient Geomagnetic Disruption
A shift in Earth’s poles 42,000 years ago may have drastically altered the planet’s climate, scientists have found — and they’re naming the period after the author Douglas Adams.
Whale Songs Could Reveal Deep Secrets Beneath the Oceans
The aquatic mammals’ sound waves penetrate into the rocks under the waves, which could assist seismologists’ surveys.
Childhood Colds Do Not Prevent Coronavirus Infection, Study Finds
New research casts doubt on the idea that prior infections with garden-variety coronaviruses might shield some people, particularly children, amid the pandemic.
Coronavirus Will Resemble the Common Cold, Scientists Predict
Once immunity is widespread in adults, the virus rampaging across the world will come to resemble the common cold, scientists predict.
How Selfish Are Plants? Let’s Do Some Root Analysis
A new model further untangles the complex strategy games playing out under our feet.
Biogen Conference May Have Spread Virus to 300,000
A February conference by the drug company Biogen was initially thought to have infected 99 people. By the end of October, it was feared that the number had grown as high as 300,000.
How Scientists Tracked Down a Mass Killer (of Salmon)
Something was decimating the salmon that had been restored to creeks around Puget Sound.
The Children Never Had Covid. So Why Did They Have Coronavirus Antibodies?
A provocative study suggests that certain colds may leave antibodies against the new coronavirus, perhaps explaining why children are more protected than adults.
Scientific Journals Commit to Diversity but Lack the Data
Several prominent publishers said they did not track the race and ethnicity of the researchers contributing to their platforms.
Ancient Dog DNA Shows Early Spread Around the Globe
Research on fossil canine genomes is expanding and producing some surprises about the lives of dogs and humans in prehistoric times.
No Grumpy Old Men in the Chimp World
Older male chimps follow a pattern that researchers also see in humans, preferring to have positive relationships with a few good friends.
What’s Special About Bat Viruses? What We Don’t Know Could Hurt Us
The immune systems of bats are weird, but we don’t know how weird, how they got that way or enough about other animals.
Huge Study of Coronavirus Cases in India Offers Some Surprises to Scientists
The rate of death went down in patients over 65. Researchers also found that children of all ages became infected and spread the virus to others.
The Coronavirus Mostly Spares Younger Children. Teens Aren’t So Lucky.
Younger children are about half as likely as older teenagers and adults to become infected, new studies suggest.
When the Otters Vanished, Everything Else Started to Crumble
Against the backdrop of climate change, the delicate underwater ecology of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands is hurting from declines in otters.
Scientists Uncover Biological Signatures of the Worst Covid-19 Cases
Studies of patients with severe cases of Covid-19 show the immune system lacks its usual coordinated response.
The Male Anglerfish’s Evolutionary Solution to Female Rejection
Commingling tissues and blood would normally prompt a massive immune response. These deep sea lovers found a workaround.
With Covid-19, a Seismic Quiet Like No Other
Coronavirus shutdowns led to “the longest and most coherent global seismic noise reduction in recorded history,” scientists report.
Viking Age Smallpox Complicates Story of Viral Evolution
An extinct version of the smallpox virus dating to 1,400 years ago prompts speculation about viruses becoming more lethal over time.