SPREADING NEWS The controversial idea that a Culex mosquito (shown) can spread Zika is getting some reconsideration as new data are emerging from separate labs.
James Gathany/CDC
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Magazine
In the October 1 SN: Meet the SN 10 — up-and-coming scientists exploring big questions, Tasmanian devils resist an epidemic of cancer, the ebb and flow of one man’s microbiome, oldest fossils, Juno’s first closeups of Jupiter and more.
SHELL GAME Roughly 809-million-year-old microbe fossils, such as this one found in Canada, may be the oldest evidence of organisms creating minerals for protection against predators. The shells take many shapes, including this honeycomb pattern.
P. Cohen
GENUINE GODS A book called the Grolier Codex — long regarded as a fake by some scientists — may be the oldest known manuscript of ancient America. Deities depicted on the book’s 10 surviving pages include a death god with a decapitated captive (left) and a bird/serpent god.
Enrico Ferorelli, S. Houston
BARNACLE BIOGRAPHY The barnacles that latch on to baleen whales, such as this humpback, may offer a record of their hosts’ movements, even millions of years later, new research suggests.
Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Science News
News
Glass bits, charcoal hint at 56-million-year-old space rock impact
Glassy debris and the burnt remains of wildfires suggest that a large space rock hit Earth near the start of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum warming event around 56 million years ago.
News
Concern expands over Zika birth defects
Infection with Zika virus in utero can trigger a spectrum of birth defects beyond microcephaly, and could potentially cause long-term health problems as well.
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For Daily Use
Wi-Fi can help house distinguish between members
Using Wi-Fi, computers could one day identify individual family members in a smart home.
Feature
The SN 10: Meet the scientists making the next big discoveries
Science News spotlights 10 rising scientists who will transform their research fields over the coming decades.
News in Brief
Methane didn’t warm ancient Earth, new simulations suggest
Scarce oxygen and abundant sulfate prevented methane from accumulating enough to keep Earth warm hundreds of millions of years ago, reviving the faint young sun paradox.
News in Brief
Europa spouting off again
Plumes of presumably water erupt from the surface of Jupiter’s frozen moon Europa, in images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
News
Mercury’s surface still changing
A population of small cliffs on Mercury suggests that the planet might have been tectonically active in the last 50 million years.
News
Nuclear blasts, other human activity signal new epoch, group argues
A group of scientists will formally propose the human-defined Anthropocene as a new epoch in Earth’s geologic history within a few years, probably pegging the start date to nuclear tests.
News
New era of human embryo gene editing begins
Gene editing of viable human embryos is happening, in and out of the public eye.
News
Sugar industry sought to sugarcoat causes of heart disease
Sugar industry has long, sweet history of influencing science.
News
Narrowed plumbing lets flower survive summer cold snaps
Ice barriers help alpine plants save their flowers during summer cold snaps.
For Daily Use
It's time to retire the five-second rule
Wet food can slurp bacteria off the floor in less than a second.
News
Natural ally against global warming not as strong as thought
Soils may take in far less carbon by the end of the century than previously predicted, exacerbating climate change.
50 Years Ago
Old-school contraptions still work for weighing astronauts
To weigh themselves, astronauts still use technology invented about 50 years ago.
News
Single exodus from Africa gave rise to today’s non-Africans
Genetics and climate studies differ on when modern humans left Africa.
News
Endurance training leaves no memory in muscles
Unlike strength training, endurance workouts left no genetic trace months later, calling into question idea of a general muscle memory.
News
Activity trackers fall short in weight-loss trial
In a two-year study, wearable activity monitors didn’t help young adults lose more weight.
News
Primordial continental crust re‑created in lab
Compressing rocks from an ocean plateau at high temperatures and pressures re-creates the formation of Earth’s first continental crust.
News
Vanished star may be first known failed supernova
A star that vanished in another galaxy might be the first confirmed case of a failed supernova — and the birth of a black hole.
Science Visualized
How one scientist's gut microbes changed over a year
Computational biologist Lawrence David chronicled changes in his gut microbes for a year.