TORCHED TOWN The Camp Fire burned through the town of Paradise in Northern California, leaving behind rubble where houses and businesses once stood.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
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Magazine
In the Nov. 10 SN: Real benefits of virtual therapy, monkey malaria in humans, round electrons disappoint, mouse pups with two dads, bats’ hover techniques, Europa’s icy spikes, a vampire burial and more.
SEMICONDUCTOR GETUP A yeast cell (magenta) coated in semiconductor nanoparticles (purple), shown in this false-color scanning electron microscopy image, creates useful chemicals better than an uncoated cell does.
Wyss Inst./Harvard Univ.
MAMMOTH WORLD A Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi), an American mastodon (Mammut americanum) and a gomphothere (Cuvieronius) were among the prehistoric elephant relatives that roamed North America and Eurasia until the end of the last ice age.
Sergio De La Rosa
SPACE ROCK An iron asteroid hurtles through space in this artist’s conception of an event that left a large crater in northwest Greenland sometime in the distant past.
Natural History Museum of Denmark, Cryospheric Sciences Lab/GSFC/NASA
Science News
News in Brief
A Bronze Age game called 58 holes was found chiseled into stone in Azerbaijan
A pattern on a rock in Azerbaijan suggests that a game called 58 holes traveled fast from the Near East to Eurasia thousands of years ago.
News
FDA restricts the sale of some flavored e-cigarettes as teen use soars
The Food and Drug Administration announced restrictions on the sale of some e-cigarette flavors in response to a drastic rise in teen’s use of e-cigs.
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News
Astronomers spot another star that flickers like Tabby’s star
The irregular flickering of star VVV-WIT-07 is reminiscent of Tabby’s star, which brought speculation of alien megastructures.
Feature
How mammoths competed with other animals and lost
Mammoths, mastodons and other ancient elephants were wiped out at the end of the last ice age by climate change and spear-wielding humans.
News
It’s official: We’re redefining the kilogram
In May 2019, the system of measurement will be upgraded to rely on fundamental constants.
News
Lyme and other tickborne diseases are on the rise in the U.S. Here’s what that means.
A record number of tickborne diseases were reported in the United States in 2017. An infectious disease physician discusses that result and others.
News
Development near natural areas puts more Californians in the path of wildfires
As urbanization extends its reach into once-natural areas, more homes and people are at risk from wildfires.
News in Brief
Mini ‘solar panels’ help yeast shine at churning out drug ingredients
Microbes equipped with light-harvesting semiconductor particles generate useful chemicals much more efficiently than ordinary microbes.
News
Coffee or tea? Your preference may be written in your DNA
Coffee or tea is a bitter choice, a taste genetics study suggests.
Feature
Malaysia is ground zero for the next malaria menace
With deforestation in Malaysia, monkeys and humans are getting closer — and mosquitoes are infecting humans with malaria from monkeys.
News
A massive crater hides beneath Greenland’s ice
The discovery of a vast crater in Greenland suggests that a 1-kilometer-wide asteroid hit the Earth between 2.6 million and 11,700 years ago.
News
Skull damage suggests Neandertals led no more violent lives than humans
Neandertals’ skulls suggest they didn’t lead especially injury-prone lives.
News
Sound-absorbent wings and fur help some moths evade bats
Tiny ultrathin scales on some moth wings absorb sound waves sent out by bats on the hunt.
News in Brief
U.S. cases of a polio-like illness rise, but there are few clues to its cause
A total of 90 cases of acute flaccid myelitis have been confirmed so far this year, out of 252 under investigation.
News
Climate change may have made the Arctic deadlier for baby shorebirds
What were once relatively safe havens in the Arctic are now feasting sites for predators of baby birds.
Introducing
One of Earth’s shimmering dust clouds has been spotted at last
Almost 60 years after a Polish astronomer spotted clouds of dust orbiting Earth near the moon, astronomers have detected those clouds again.
News in Brief
Physicists wrangled electrons into a quantum fractal
The tiny, repeating structure could reveal weird behavior of electrons in fractional dimensions.
Science Stats
Car tires and brake pads produce harmful microplastics
Scientists surveyed tiny airborne plastics near German highways and found that bits of tires, brake pads and asphalt make up most of the particles.
News
China is about to visit uncharted territory on the moon
The next two Chinese missions to the moon will visit places no spacecraft has been before. The rest of the world wants a piece of the lunar action.
News
A potent fish oil drug may protect high-risk patients against heart attacks
People with, or at high risk of, cardiovascular disease lowered their chances of having a heart attack or stroke with a drug containing an omega-3 fatty acid.
News
Vitamin D supplements don’t prevent heart disease or cancer
Vitamin D supplements won’t cut your risk of heart attack or stroke, according to highly anticipated study results.
Say What?
These tiny, crackly bubbles are a new type of volcanic ash
Scientists have identified a new type of volcanic ash made up of millimeter-long spheres with a crackled surface.
News
Ancient DNA suggests people settled South America in at least 3 waves
Genetic studies of ancient remains are filling in the picture of who the earliest Americans were and how they spread through the Americas long ago.
News
How a life-threatening allergic reaction can happen so fast
Cells that act as sentries facilitate quick communication between allergens and anaphylaxis-triggering immune cells, a study in mice finds.