All Stories
- Physics
A new measurement bolsters the case for a (slightly) smaller proton
The PRad physics experiment has come up with a result favoring a punier proton.
- Anthropology
Neandertal teeth reveal the earliest known signs of lead exposure
Chemical analyses of teeth from young Neandertals show that lead exposure in hominids goes back some 250,000 years.
- Life
Eating less protein may help curb gut bacteria’s growth
A new study in mice and 30 mammal species hints at what controls the types and amounts of gut microbes, which can contribute to health and disease.
- Planetary Science
Dawn, the first spacecraft to orbit 2 alien worlds, has gone silent
The Dawn probe, which hopped between two objects in the asteroid belt during its seven-year mission, ran out of fuel and stopped calling home.
- Physics
Vanadium dioxide’s weird phase transition just got weirder
When shifting from one crystalline structure to another, the atoms inside vanadium dioxide bumble around a lot more than expected.
- Astronomy
The Milky Way feasted on a smaller galaxy 10 billion years ago
The Milky Way swallowed another galaxy billions of years ago, and the leftover stars are still roaming the sky.
- Archaeology
Fossils hint hominids migrated through a ‘green’ Arabia 300,000 years ago
A once-green Arabia may have enabled Stone Age entries by Homo groups.
- Tech
Virtual reality therapy has real-life benefits for some mental disorders
Cheap, user-friendly virtual reality hardware could help VR therapy go mainstream. Some treatments are ready for primetime, while others are still in early testing.
- Paleontology
Eggs evolved color and speckles only once — during the age of dinosaurs
Birds’ colorful eggs were inherited from their nonavian dinosaur ancestors.
- Neuroscience
Stimulating the spinal cord helps 3 more paralyzed people walk
There’s more evidence that with targeted spinal cord stimulation, paralyzed people can move voluntarily — and even walk.
- Astronomy
Three gas clouds nearly grazed the edge of the Milky Way’s black hole
Gas clumps cozy up to the Milky Way’s enormous black hole, new observations reveal.
- Health & Medicine
The appendix is implicated in Parkinson’s disease
Removal of the appendix reduced the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, an analysis of nearly 1.7 million health records in Sweden suggests.
