SCARRED SURFACE The moon held on to almost all the craters it’s ever acquired in 4.5 billion years of impacts. This lunar map is surrounded by images of 111 craters wider than 10 kilometers and younger than a billion years.
Dr. A. Parker/SWRI
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Magazine
In Dec. 22 SN: Our top stories of 2018, baffling star behavior, early hominids in North Africa, the oldest evidence of vanilla, wombat poop physics, Earth’s impact craters and more.
SKEETER STYMIED The Aedes aegypti mosquito can transmit viral diseases like Zika and dengue. Molecules produced by an insect-killing bacteria appear to keep these mosquitoes at bay as effectively as DEET.
Guilherme Omella Mainieri/Alamy Stock Photo
CHYTRID SURVIVOR After a decade in which people feared they were extinct, five Sehuencas water frogs have been discovered in Bolivia, including this female named Juliet. Researchers plan to introduce her to Romeo, a frog in captivity that until now was the last known survivor of his species.
Robin Moore
ROAMING BOT Researchers designed a robot called OroBOT to re-create and analyze different gaits that Orobates pabsti, a four-legged creature that lived about 290 million years ago, might have used.
Tomislav Horvat and K. Melo/EPFL Lausanne
Science News
News
A new gravitational wave detector is almost ready to join the search
Buried deep underground, Japan’s KAGRA detector relies on components cooled to just 20 degrees above absolute zero.
News
The moon’s craters suggest Earth hasn’t erased lots of past impacts
A new look at moon craters suggests the Earth and moon suffered more impacts in the last 290 million years, and the Earth retains its biggest scars.
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New ways to image and control nerve cells could unlock brain mysteries
Methods that target single nerve cells in mice and fruit fly brains are starting to tease apart the brain’s complexity.
Feature
Two daring spacecraft aim to bring asteroid dust back to Earth
A pair of daredevil spacecraft that aim to bring asteroid dust back to Earth have reached their targets and are scouting for the best sampling spots.
News
Overdose deaths tied to antianxiety drugs like Xanax continue to rise
Benzodiazepines, widely used but addictive drugs to treat anxiety and insomnia, are contributing to a growing number of overdose deaths.
Feature
150 years on, the periodic table has more stories than it has elements
The organized rows and columns of the Periodic Table hide a rich and twisting history.
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This rediscovered Bolivian frog species survived deadly chytrid fungus
Scientists recently rediscovered a frog species in Bolivia that hasn’t been seen in 10 years — and it could be used to better understand a frog-killing fungus.
Essay
How the periodic table went from a sketch to an enduring masterpiece
150 years ago, Russian chemist Dmitrii Mendeleev created the periodic table of the elements, revolutionizing chemistry.
News
Bacterial compounds may be as good as DEET at repelling mosquitoes
A bacterium’s metabolic by-products are as effective as DEET in deterring Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
News
An ancient child from East Asia grew teeth like a modern human
Choppers from a youngster with an unknown evolutionary background indicate that hominids evolved a humanlike life span in East Asia by 100,000 years ago.
News in Brief
These robots can follow how-to diagrams
Robots capable of reading diagrams could work in more varied environments and be easier to communicate with.
News
A four-legged robot hints at how ancient tetrapods walked
Using fossils, computer simulations and a life-size walking robot, researchers re-created how an early tetrapod may have made tracks.
News
A new 3-D printed ‘sponge’ sops up excess chemo drugs
Researchers have created “sponges” that would absorb excess cancer drugs before they spread through the body and cause negative side effects.
News in Brief
The first suspected exomoon may remain hidden for another decade
The discoverers of the first evidence for a moon orbiting a planet around a distant star are still trying to confirm the object’s existence.
News
Easing test anxiety boosts low-income students’ biology grades
Wealthier students outperform their less advantaged peers in math and science. Decreasing test anxiety may help even the playing field.
News
A cosmic flare called the ‘Cow’ may reveal a new way that stars die
A burst of light from far away may have been an odd type of exploding star or a white dwarf being eaten by a black hole.
News
Desalination pours more toxic brine into the ocean than previously thought
Desalination plants help offset the world’s growing water needs, but they also produce much more supersalty water than scientists realized.
News in Brief
Your phone could reveal your radiation exposure after a nuclear disaster
Examining personal electronics may help gauge people’s radiation exposure in the event of a nuclear accident or attack.
News
Here’s how the record-breaking government shutdown is disrupting science
The partial government shutdown is taking many U.S. scientists out of commission and putting up hurdles to their research.
News
A drill built for Mars is being used to bore into Antarctic bedrock
An autonomous drill originally designed for work on Mars has its first mission in Antarctica.
News
How worm blobs behave like a liquid and a solid
Blobs of worms flow like a fluid, plop like a solid and fascinate scientists.
News
Nerve cells from people with autism grow unusually big and fast
In some forms of autism, nerve cells develop faster than normal, possibly setting the stage for the disorder, a study finds.
News
Poison toilet paper reveals how termites help rainforests resist drought
Novel use of poisoned toilet paper rolls and teabags led to discovery that termites help tropical forests resist droughts.
News in Brief
Floating seabirds provide a novel way to trace ocean currents
Seabirds idly drifting with ocean currents provide a novel way to track and understand how these flows change with time and location.