ANTIBACTERIAL BACKFIRE Soaps that contain triclosan, a commonly used antimicrobial compound, could actually help disease-causing bacteria colonize the human nose.
©iStock.com/EMPPhotography
SMELL NO EVIL Young damselfishes (shown) living in carbon dioxide-rich waters have trouble detecting predator odors, compared to fish in areas with less CO2 dissolved in the water.
Danielle Dixson
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
GREEN POWER Rapid adoption of alternative power production, including wind, solar and nuclear power, will be necessary to avert a climate crisis, the latest IPCC report says.
Luis Alves/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
GETTING BIGGER, MAYBE Scientists disagree about whether a Homo erectus boy from 1.5 million years ago, represented here by a cast of the child’s skull, had a modern, humanlike teenage growth spurt.
Philippe Plailly/Science Source
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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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.
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
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.
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
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.
How Bizarre
Soft robots go swimming
A new robotic fish can wiggle and writhe like the real thing.
News
Exotic particle packs a foursome of quarks
Tetraquarks could help physicists understand the universe’s first generations of matter.
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 in Brief
Five mutations could make bird flu spread easily
Handful of alterations can turn H5N1 bird flu into virus that infects ferrets through the air.
Science Visualized
Seismic signals chronicle deadly landslide
Washington state’s deadly Oso landslide was recorded in seismic waves.
News
In a crisis, fruit flies do stunt turns
An elaborate monitoring system reveals that fruit flies can execute sophisticated flying maneuvers in the face of danger.
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