News in Brief
- Animals
Elephant diets changed millions of years before their teeth
The animals fed on grasses long before their molars could grind the tough plants.
- Astronomy
Cradled galaxies betray violent past
Hubble snaps ‘the Penguin’ and its egg-shaped companion.
- Chemistry
High methane in drinking water near fracking sites
Well construction and geology may both play a role in pollution.
- Life
Brain cell insulators are short-timers
Limited myelin production time may make it harder to repair nerve casings damaged by multiple sclerosis.
- Earth
Satellite captures Earth’s greenery
Orbiting camera detects reflected light to determine the extent of the planet's vegetation.
- Health & Medicine
Some infertile men have heightened cancer risk
Those who don’t make sperm are more likely than fertile men to develop a malignancy.
- Humans
Aerial radar sizes up ancient urban sprawl
Angkor, the capital of Cambodia's Khmer empire, included carefully planned suburbs that spread across the landscape.
- Life
On the trail of a new virus
Map of MERS infection finds microbe spread through hospital dialysis units.
- Anthropology
Snails trace Stone Age trek from Iberia to Ireland
A genetic quirk linking snails in two distant areas suggests people brought escargot on their migration to the Emerald Isle.
- Animals
In dark fishing spiders, males’ postmating nap is permanent
Species prepares for two pairings but goes into a fatal coma after a single encounter.
- Tech
Eye chip sends signals to blind rats’ brains
When struck with light, retinal prostheses stimulate animals' visual cortices.
- Animals
Butterflies’ tidy drinking tricks
The long tube of the insects' mouthparts is fluid friendly only at the tip.
