DOUBLE BUBBLE Two enormous bubbles sandwich the Milky Way and emit gamma rays (illustrated). Two chimneys that glow in X-rays seem to connect these bubbles to the galaxy’s center, scientists report.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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Magazine
In the March 16 SN: Disappearing Bering Sea ice, nanohealers, the world's largest bee, pollen’s beautiful physics, a tiny T. rex relative, testing Ebola drugs in Congo and more.
MOMMY BIRD This ancient avian, named Avimaia schweitzerae, lived about 110 million years ago in what is now northwestern China. Analyses of the fossil revealed that the bird’s body contained an unlaid egg (lighter brown smudge) when it died.
A.M. Bailleul et al/Nature Communications 2019
KILLER CAT No Beast So Fierce tells the story of the “Man-Eater of Champawat,” a tiger that terrorized parts of India and Nepal in the early 1900s (a tiger in India’s Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary is shown).
Vijaymp/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
HIDDEN FROM VIEW With a brown back, orange tummy and glittery bluish-white spots that help it blend in with the forest floor, the newly described starry dwarf frog (pictured) stayed hidden from scientists for centuries.
K.P. Dinesh
Science News
News
Newfound fossils in China highlight a dizzying diversity of Cambrian life
A new treasure trove of Cambrian fossils in China dating to 518 million years ago could rival Canada’s Burgess Shale.
News
Saving monkey testicle tissue before puberty hints at a new way to preserve fertility
Frozen testicle tissue samples from prepubescent monkeys transplanted back onto those monkeys once they matured produced sperm.
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News
A new ketamine-based antidepressant raises hope — and questions
Little is known about the long-term effects on people of a newly approved antidepressant based on the anesthetic ketamine.
Feature
What happens when the Bering Sea’s ice disappears?
Record-low sea ice in 2018 sent ripples through the Bering Sea’s entire ecosystem. Will this be the region’s new normal?
News in Brief
Ryugu is probably a chip off one of these two other asteroids
Japan’s Hayabusa2 team has narrowed down the asteroid Ryugu’s origins based on its color.
News
X-ray ‘chimneys’ connect the Milky Way to mysterious gamma-ray bubbles
Two columns of X-rays that are hundreds of light-years long could explain the existence of giant bubbles of energetic light that sandwich the galaxy.
News in Brief
In a first, a fossilized egg is found preserved inside an ancient bird
Scientists have found the first known fossil of a bird that died with an unlaid egg inside its body. The egg has been crushed by pressure over time.
Feature
Nanosponges sop up toxins and help repair tissues
Nanoparticles coated with blood cell membranes can move through the body to clean up toxins or heal tissues — without instigating an immune reaction.
News
Surprising astronomers, Bennu spits plumes of dust into space
Bennu spews dust from its rocky surface, which may be a new kind of asteroid activity.
News
The learning gap between rich and poor students hasn’t changed in decades
The educational achievement gap between the poorest and richest U.S. students remains as wide as it was almost 50 years ago.
Reviews & Previews
How a tiger transforms into a man-eater
‘No Beast So Fierce’ examines the historical and environmental factors that turned a tiger in Nepal and India into a human-killer.
News
Ultima Thule may be a frankenworld
The first geologic map of Ultima Thule shows it might be made of many smaller rocks that clumped together under the force of their own gravity.
News
People can sense Earth’s magnetic field, brain waves suggest
An analysis of brain waves offers new evidence that people subconsciously process information about the planet’s magnetism.
Introducing
Meet India’s starry dwarf frog — a species with no close relatives
The newly identified starry dwarf frog represents a new species, genus and potentially even a new family.
News
Resurrecting woolly mammoth cells is hard to do
Japanese scientists say some proteins in frozen mammoth cells may still work after 28,000 years. But that activity may be more mouse than mammoth.
Television
‘Epic Yellowstone’ captures the thriving ecosystem of the world-famous park
A new documentary series about Yellowstone displays the dynamic, dramatic and exciting ecosystem that thrives within the park’s gates.
How Bizarre
Some shrimp make plasma with their claws. Now a 3-D printed claw can too
Scientists used a replica of a shrimp claw to re-create the extreme pressures and temperatures that the animals produce underwater.
News in Brief
U.S. heart attack mortality reached a two-decade low in 2014
Deaths within 30 days of a heart attack have declined from 20 percent in 1995 to 12.4 percent in 2014, according to an analysis of Medicare patient data.
Exhibit
A new T. rex exhibit takes a deep dive into the iconic dinosaur
“T. rex: The Ultimate Predator,” a new exhibit in New York City, draws on the latest science to provide a fresh look at Tyrannosaurus rex and its relatives.
News
The rise of farming altered our bite and changed how people talk
Eating soft, processed foods refashioned adults' jaws, which added “f” and “v” sounds to speech and changed languages worldwide, a study finds.
News
Flickers and buzzes sweep mouse brains of Alzheimer’s plaques
Precisely timed clicking noises can counter signs of Alzheimer’s in the brains of mice and improve memory.
News
Students worldwide are striking to demand action on climate change
On March 15, students are set to attend more than 1,000 events to demand that governments do more to rein in greenhouse gas emissions.
News in Brief
An origami design helps this robot lift delicate and heavy cargo
Fragile items, such as soft fruits, as well as heavier goods are in safe hands with a new robotic gripper.
News in Brief
Ultraprecise atomic clocks put Einstein’s special relativity to the test
Physics obeys the same rules no matter what direction you’re facing, a new experiment confirms.