HERE TODAY Violent collisions in the early solar system, illustrated here, probably broke apart would-be planets — but diamonds forged in those planets’ cores may have made it to Earth as meteorites.
Mark Garlick/Science Source
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Magazine
In the April 14 SN: Killer heat, mass insect migrations, the latest Saturn updates, rethinking the Nobel Prize, tectonics on Venus, the science of mass shootings, ancient tool trends and more.
MAYA HUB An ancient Maya site called La Corona (shown in this artist’s illustration with a ceremonial center in the foreground) was a remote but key part of a large Classic Maya state, new research suggests.
PACUNAM
MIXING IT UP One swimming brine shrimp generates small-scale turbulence (time lapse of suspended particles in green). But large numbers of the animals together may create currents that stir oceans.
Isabel Houghton
SEAL MEAL A harbor seal digs its claws into a salmon. Sea lions and some other seal species have sturdy flippers instead of paws, and so can’t grasp prey in this way.
D.P. Hocking et al/Roy. Soc. Open Science 2018
Science News
News in Brief
Larger spleens may help ‘sea nomads’ stay underwater longer
The Bajau people of Southeast Asia have a gene variant associated with larger spleens, boosting their oxygen while breath-hold diving, researchers say.
Science & the Public
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Rising CO2 levels might not be as good for plants as we thought
A 20-year experiment spots a reversal in the way two kinds of plants take up extra carbon from the atmosphere.
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News in Brief
Male fruit flies enjoy ejaculation
Red light exposure made some genetically engineered fruit flies ejaculate, spurring a surge of a brain reward compound — and less desire for booze.
Feature
Are we ready for the deadly heat waves of the future?
As heat waves become more common, cities try to respond.
News in Brief
A hole in an ancient cow’s skull could have been surgery practice
Before performing skull operations on people, ancient surgeons may have rehearsed on cows.
Feature
Opioids kill. Here’s how an overdose shuts down your body
Powerful opioids affect many parts of the body, but the drugs’ most deadly effects are on breathing.
Mystery Solved
How ravens caused a LIGO data glitch
Ravens pecking at frosty pipes caused a glitch in gravitational wave data.
News
This meteorite’s diamonds hint that it was born in a lost planet
Bits of metal nestled inside diamonds suggest the space rock could have formed in a Mars-sized protoplanet in the early solar system.
News
Why touch can be such a creepy sensation in VR
Touch sensation in VR can go from immersive to unnerving as the feeling gets more realistic, if you can’t see the source.
News
Masses of shrimp and krill may play a huge role in mixing oceans
Hoards of migrating shrimp and krill can cause large-scale turbulence in the ocean, a new study suggests.
News
These seals haven’t lost their land ancestors’ hunting ways
Clawed pawlike forelimbs help true seals hunt like their land-dwelling ancestors.
News
This ancient Maya city may have helped the Snake King dynasty spread
A rural hub in an ancient Maya state gets its due with some laser help.
News
Here’s why putting a missile defense system in space could be a bad idea
Expanding missile defense capabilities could put the world on a slippery slope to space warfare.
Teaser
A new plastic film glows to flag food contaminated with dangerous microbes
Plastic patches that glow when they touch some types of bacteria could be built into food packaging to reduce the spread of foodborne illness.
News
Dogs lived and died with humans 10,000 years ago in the Americas
Dogs unearthed at sites in Illinois were older than originally thought.
News
Lasers squeezed iron to mimic the conditions of exoplanet cores
In the first experiment to measure what exoplanets might be like on the inside, scientists hit iron with 176 lasers at once.
Reviews & Previews
‘Weird Math’ aims to connect numbers and equations to the real world
The book Weird Math attempts to make chaos theory, higher dimensions and other concepts more relatable.
News
The Facebook data debacle may not change internet behavior
In the wake of the Facebook data breach, personal privacy experts say there’s little individuals can do to control their personal information online.
News
Cargo ships must cut their emissions in half by 2050
A new international agreement places a cap on greenhouse gas emissions from international cargo ships.
News
Tales of rampant suicide among Custer’s soldiers may be overblown
Few of Custer’s men killed themselves in the face of overwhelming Native American numbers at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, skeletal data suggest.
News
This is how norovirus invades the body
Norovirus targets a rare type of gut cell, a study in mice finds.
News
Sweet potatoes might have arrived in Polynesia long before humans
Genetic analysis suggests that sweet potatoes were present in Polynesia over 100,000 years ago, and didn’t need help crossing the Pacific.
News in Brief
Using laser tweezers, chemists nudged two atoms to bond
This is the first time researchers have purposefully combined two specific atoms into a molecule.
News in Brief
A key constant’s new measurement hints ‘dark photons’ don't exist
New measurement of the fine-structure constant is the most precise yet.