POOF! During allergy season, it’s hard not to take those puffs of pollen as a personal affront, but researchers are sorting out what plants get from their annoying-to-humans compounds.
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In the May 11 & 25 SN: High-tech cricket farming, AI learns from Minecraft, looking for lithium, a new hominid species is named, signs of life in dead pig brains, Cherokee cave texts decoded, water molecules on the moon and more.
HAS-BEEN For 130 years, this metal cylinder was the definition of a kilogram. Now, it's just another hunk of metal, as scientists have instituted a new definition based on a quantity known as the Planck constant.
BIPM
BLACK OUT Microscopic bumps on male Maratus speciosus peacock spiders (shown) make some of their black patches appear even darker, which may help the arachnids attract a mate.
Jürgen C. Otto
DOG BREATH Some Norwich terriers’ breathing troubles might rest on a mutated gene linked to swelling around airways, researchers suggest. The gene may also contribute to the labored breathing of dogs with flatter snouts, such as French and English bulldogs.
Marcia A. Sessions
Science News
News
Bad moods could be contagious among ravens
Ravens may pick up and share their compatriots’ negativity, a study on the social intelligence of these animals suggests.
Transparency Project
3 weeks ago
Transparency Project
3 weeks ago
News
The kilogram just got a revamp. A unit of time might be next
After years of preparation, new definitions for the basic units of mass, temperature and more have now gone into effect.
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This early sauropod went from walking on four legs to two as it grew
A new computer analysis shows how Mussaurus patagonicus’s weight shifted toward its hips as it grew, confirming fossil hints of how its gait changed.
Feature
AI can learn real-world skills from playing StarCraft and Minecraft
By playing StarCraft and Minecraft, artificial intelligence is learning how to collaborate and adapt.
News
How allergens in pollen help plants do more than make you sneeze
A plant’s view of what humans call allergens in pollen grains involves a lot of crucial biology. And sex.
Feature
The search for new geologic sources of lithium could power a clean future
Futuristic clean-energy visions of electric vehicles are driving the hunt for lithium.
News
Key parts of a fruit fly’s genetic makeup have finally been decoded
Jumping genes may make it possible to divvy up chromosomes.
Feature
Can Silicon Valley entrepreneurs make crickets the next chicken?
Entrepreneurs are bringing automation and data analysis to insect agriculture to build a profitable business that helps feed the planet.
News
An experiment hints at quantum entanglement inside protons
Particles inside protons seem to be linked on a scale smaller than a trillionth of a millimeter.
News
Vaccines may help bats fight white nose syndrome
Researchers are developing an oral vaccine that helps little brown bats survive the fungal disease white nose syndrome.
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Does eating ultraprocessed food affect weight gain? It’s complicated
Laying off ultraprocessed foods and switching to whole foods may help some people manage their weight, a small study finds.
News in Brief
Some dog breeds may have trouble breathing because of a mutated gene
Norwich terriers don’t have flat snouts, but can suffer the same wheezing as bulldogs. It turns out that a gene mutation tied to swelling could be to blame.
News
Bloodthirsty bedbugs have feasted on prey for 100 million years
Research sheds light on the evolutionary history of the bloodsucking bedbugs. The first species evolved at least as early as the Cretaceous, scientists say.
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Fossil teeth push the human-Neandertal split back to about 1 million years ago
A study of fossilized teeth shifts the age of the last common ancestor between Neandertals and humans.
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China’s lunar rover may have found minerals from the moon’s mantle
The Chang’e-4 mission spotted material on the lunar surface that appears to contain bits originating from the moon’s interior.
Science Visualized
Peacock spiders’ superblack spots reflect just 0.5 percent of light
By manipulating light with tiny structures, patches on peacock spiders appear superblack, helping accentuate the arachnids’ bright colors.
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Tweaking one gene with CRISPR switched the way a snail shell spirals
The first gene-edited snails confirm which gene is responsible for the direction of the shell’s spiral.
News
Apollo-era moonquakes reveal that the moon may be tectonically active
Moonquakes recorded decades ago suggest the moon is tectonically active. Knowing more about that activity could help scientists identify where to land future spacecraft.
News
A new AI acquired humanlike ‘number sense’ on its own
A new artificial intelligence seems to share our intuitive ability to estimate numbers at a glance.
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Deep-sea fishes’ eye chemistry might let them see colors in near darkness
An unexpected abundance of proteins for catching dim light evolved independently in three groups of weird deep-sea fishes.
News in Brief
Only a third of Earth’s longest rivers still run free
Mapping millions of kilometers of waterways shows that just 37 percent of rivers longer than 1,000 kilometers remain unchained by human activities.
News in Brief
Ancient South American populations dipped due to an erratic climate
Scientists link bouts of intense rainfall and drought around 8,600 to 6,000 years ago to declining numbers of South American hunter-gatherers.
50 Years Ago
50 years ago, scientists tried to transplant part of a human eye
In 1969, a doctor tried and failed to restore a 54-year-old man’s vision. Fifty years later, scientists are still struggling to make eye transplants work.
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A gut bacteria transplant may not help you lose weight
A small study finds that transplanting gut microbes from a lean person into obese people didn’t lead to weight loss, as hoped.