BIG GULP Gravitational waves may have revealed a black hole in the process of swallowing up a neutron star (illustrated). If confirmed, the event would be the first of its kind ever seen.
Dana Berry/NASA
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Magazine
In the Aug. 17 SN: A menagerie of neurons, Boston fights wicked high tides, liquid magnets, today's truly global warming, ploonets, the origins of mammalian chewing and more.
VACCINE NEEDED Researchers reported promising results in a test in humans for a vaccine against chlamydia, which causes around 131 million new infections worldwide each year.
MarianVejcik/iStock/Getty Images Plus
ONE RING Scientists have created a new form of carbon consisting of 18 atoms arranged in a ring, illustrated here with data from an atomic force microscope. Bonds between atoms are alternately longer and shorter, giving the ring nine sides.
IBM Research
CALM WATERS A new cloaking technique might help prevent waves from rocking ships loading cargo in ports.
Stewart Sutton/DigitalVision/Getty
Science News
News
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.
Growth Curve
1 month ago
News in Brief
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.
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News in Brief
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.
Feature
How pieces of live human brain are helping scientists map nerve cells
Experiments on live nerve cells — donated from patients undergoing brain surgery — may turn up clues about how the human brain works.
News
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.
Feature
With nowhere to hide from rising seas, Boston prepares for a wetter future
Boston has armed itself with a science-driven master plan to protect itself from increasingly inevitable storm surges and rising seas.
News
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
News
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.
News
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.
News in Brief
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.
News
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.
News
CRISPR enters its first human clinical trials
The gene editor will be used in lab dishes in cancer and blood disorder trials, and to directly edit a gene in human eyes in a blindness therapy test.
News
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.
News
A mussel poop diet could fuel invasive carp’s spread across Lake Michigan
Asian carp, just a human-made waterway away from reaching Lake Michigan, could live in much more of the lake than previously thought.
News
Two of four Ebola treatments prove highly effective in a clinical trial
An Ebola field trial in Congo is shifting its focus toward treatments that preliminary data suggest can help prevent death from the disease.
News in Brief
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.
Soapbox
Plants don’t have feelings and aren’t conscious, a biologist argues
The rise of the field of “plant neurobiology” has this scientist and his colleagues pushing back.
Rethink
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.
News
Are researchers asking the right questions to prevent mass shootings?
Understanding how to thwart these violent events may be more effective than analyzing perpetrators’ backgrounds.
News
Exploding stars scattered traces of iron over Antarctic snow
Researchers melted half a ton of snow to find just 10 atoms of a radioactive variety of iron.
News
How these tiny insect larvae leap without legs
High-speed filming reveals how a blob of an insect can leap more efficiently than it crawls.
News
The worst wildfires can send smoke high enough to affect the ozone layer
The first direct observations of wildfire smoke in the stratosphere confirm what could happen in a “nuclear winter,” a study finds.
50 Years Ago
50 years ago, Fermilab turned to bubbles
The National Accelerator Laboratory, now called Fermilab, used to have a bubble chamber to study particles. Today, most bubble chambers have gone flat.
News in Brief
One in 4 people lives in a place 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.