ODD ALLIES Domesticated grapevines play host to the bacterium P. acnes, which relies on the plant for essential DNA repairs.
Anders Ljungberg/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
UNNECESSARY SUFFERING Despite the availability of a potent vaccine, measles continues to cause outbreaks around the world due to its high transmissibility, spotty vaccine coverage in some poor countries and vaccine avoidance in wealthy ones. The infection has no effective treatment, so researchers are working to develop antivirals.
©ISTOCK.COM/s-dmit
LAND LINK Paleobiologist Neil Shubin hosts the new PBS series Your Inner Fish, exploring humans’ connections to animal ancestors. He holds an example of his most famous fossil find: Tiktaalik roseae, an evolutionary link between fish and land animals.
Tangled Bank Studios, PBS
ANTIBACTERIAL BACKFIRE Soaps that contain triclosan, a commonly used antimicrobial compound, could actually help disease-causing bacteria colonize the human nose.
©iStock.com/EMPPhotography
WALK IT BACK A new analysis of 3.6-million-year-old footprints excavated in 1978 at Laetoli, Tanzania, challenges the argument that early hominids strode in much the same manner as people today do. Shown is a cast of two of the 70 footprints.
Tim Evanson
Science News
News in Brief
Earliest case of a battered child found in Greece
A baby living in Athens around 2,200 years ago was probably beaten to death.
Science News Blogs
News in Brief
Ancient boy died surprisingly young
Imaging analysis reduces age of Australopithecus sediba youngster from 9 to 7.5 years old.
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How Bizarre
One giant leap for zit-causing microbes
A bacterium that lives on humans and causes acne also hopped to domesticated grapevines and relies on the plant for crucial DNA repairs.
Feature
Buying time when quakes hit
On the West Coast, geologists are developing an earthquake warning system that can provide seconds of notice before destructive shaking begins. The system could be ready before the next big quake hits.
News
Turkana Boy sparks row over Homo erectus height
Estimating the adult height and weight of an ancient youth from his skeleton has proven tricky.
Feature
Whooping cough bounces back
A new type of pertussis vaccine introduced in the late 1990s may have led to the return of a disease that was nearly eradicated 40 years ago. Public opposition to vaccination hasn’t helped matters.
News
Reef fish act drunk in carbon dioxide–rich ocean waters
In first test in the wild, fish near reefs that bubble with CO2 lose fear of predators’ scent.
Screentime
Find your inner fish with PBS series on human evolution
A new documentary explores how the human body came together over 3.5 billion years of animal evolution.
News
Ocean bacteria may have shut off ancient global warming
Ocean-dwelling bacteria may have helped end global warming 56 million years ago by gobbling up carbon from the CO2-laden atmosphere.
How Bizarre
Soft robots go swimming
A new robotic fish can wiggle and writhe like the real thing.
News
IPCC calls for swift switch to alternative power
Rapid adoption of green power production will be necessary to avert a climate crisis, latest IPCC report says.
It's Alive
See-through shrimp flex invisible muscle
Much of the body of a Pederson’s transparent shrimp looks like watery nothing, but it’s a superhero sort of nothing.
News
Early Mars couldn't hold liquid water long
Small rocks hit Mars 3.6 billion years ago, suggesting an early atmosphere too thin for liquid water to hang around very long.
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