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Health & Medicine

Why emotions are attention-getters

Strong, direct connections between two key brain centers help explain how feelings can usurp focus.

Humans

Warming Marches in

People may argue about why Earth is warming, how long its fever will last and whether any of this warrants immediate corrective action. But whether Earth is warming is no longer open to debate. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has just published domestic examples to reinforce what Americans witnessed last month — either on TV or in their own backyards.

Life

Bat-killing fungus is a European import

Tracing the origins of the strain that causes white-nose syndrome in U.S. animals to Europe, scientists show that infection ups arousal rate during hibernation, depleting energy stores.

Humans

Bat killer is still spreading

Since 2006, some 6 million to 7 million North American bats have succumbed to white-nose syndrome, a virulent fungal disease. That figure, issued in January by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, at least sextupled the former estimate that biologists had been touting. But the sharp jump in the cumulative death toll isn’t the only disturbing new development. On April 2, scientists confirmed that white-nose fungus has apparently struck bats hibernating in two small Missouri caves. The first signs of clinical disease have also just emerged in Europe.

Earth

Stop-and-go plate tectonics

Early on, ancient crustal plates may have dived deep into the Earth, time and again, giving a halting start to the planetary remodeling process.

Health & Medicine

Autism linked to obesity in pregnancy

Association may spark research into a possible biological mechanism.

Astronomy

When solar storms pummel Earth, there’s usually no need to panic

Space

Planets’ gravity tidies stellar ring

The vast dust disk around the star Fomalhaut hints at a pair of orbiting bodies.