WORDS IMPERFECT Technology that rapidly presents words one-at-a-time on the screens of smart phones may affect text understanding, a new report indicates.
zianlob/iStockphoto
STAYING APART Some European hunter-gatherers resisted taking up agriculture and didn’t breed with early farmers, suggests DNA from the skeleton of a young hunter-gatherer woman (shown) and other foragers buried at the Ajvide site on Sweden’s Gotland island.
Göran Burenhult
TAGGED One of the first two sound-recording tags (small, green device) ever to go for a ride on an Antarctic minke whale stays attached by suction cup for hours. The tag’s recording may have solved a long-standing acoustic mystery.
Ari Friedlaender/Oregon State Univ.
PAIN, NO GAIN Pain made female mice less interested in sex but had no such effect on males, a new study finds.
Rgbspace/istockphoto
ENTANGLED Tiny electrical circuits have given physicists unprecedented control over the quantum states of units of information called qubits. The qubits appear as five crosses (center).
Erik Lucero/UCSB
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Enzyme may help aspirin protect against colon cancer
Aspirin may not reduce colon cancer risk in people with low levels of a protective enzyme called 15-PGDH.
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Mountains on Saturn moon may have come from space
A mountainous ridge around the equator of Iapetus, one of Saturn’s moons, may have formed from cosmic debris.
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Laser kicks molecules into fastest ever spin
The powerful kick of a laser has spun molecules faster than they’ve ever been spun before: 10 trillion rotations per second, or 600 trillion RPM.
Feature
The name of the fungus
A rebellion has broken out against the traditional way of naming species in the peculiar, shape-shifting world of fungi.
News in Brief
Blender whips up graphene
Easy recipe makes large quantities of graphene using kitchen blender.
Feature
Unsolved drugs
Long thought to launch precision attacks against bacteria, antibiotics may also cause lethal collateral damage, according to a controversial theory. Exploring how these compounds kill may reveal new ways to fight antibiotic resistance.
News in Brief
Cloning produces stem cells from adult skin
Human embryonic stem cells made using adult cells could enable medical advances such as replacement organs.
Science Visualized
Distant swirling galaxy dwarfed by violent star killer
In a mosaic of images from a telescope in Chile, dark dust lanes and twisting tails betray a history of galactic collisions.
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Poor slumber is bad for young flies' brains
A child's sleep deprivation could alter brain development and adult behavior, a study of fruit flies suggests.
Science Stats
What's behind rising autism rates
Better diagnosis may be driving a recent spike in autism.
News in Brief
White dwarf boosts light of stellar companion
A gravitational lens in a binary star lets astronomers weigh the core of a dead star.
Reviews & Previews
War's ecological effects laid bare in 'A Window on Eternity'
In "A Window on Eternity," entomologist E.O. Wilson chronicles both the shifting ecology of Gorongosa National Park after the war and how researchers are trying to repair the damage.
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Most extreme female penis is found on cave lice
Female penis, male vagina have been discovered in tiny Brazilian insects.
Reviews & Previews
'You Are Here' maps course for directionally challenged
A Boston Globe technology reporter chronicles the evolution of navigational and mapmaking tools in "You Are Here."
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