News in Brief

  1. Materials Science

    Live heart cells make this material shift color like a chameleon

    A new material made of heart cells from rats and hydrogel changes color as the living cells contract and relax.

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  2. Neuroscience

    Brain waves of concertgoers sync up at shows

    During a live musical performance, audience members’ brain waves get in sync.

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  3. Neuroscience

    Parents’ presence promotes a child’s pluck

    Parents’ presence or absence during a learning exercise determines whether their child is fearful later, or willing to explore.

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  4. Artificial Intelligence

    AI bests humans at mapping the moon

    AI does a more thorough job of counting craters than humans.

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  5. Plants

    Liverwort reproductive organ inspires pipette design

    A new pipette is inspired by a plant’s female reproductive structure.

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  6. Cosmology

    Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking dies at 76

    Beyond his research contributions, Stephen Hawking popularized black holes and the deep questions of the cosmos.

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  7. Planetary Science

    Cosmic dust may create Mars’ wispy clouds

    Magnesium left by passing comets seeds the clouds of Mars, a new study suggests.

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  8. Astronomy

    We probably won’t hear from aliens. But by the time we do, they’ll be dead.

    Astronomers build on the Drake Equation to probe the chance that humans will find existing aliens. The answer: Not likely.

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  9. Anthropology

    Museum mummies sport world’s oldest tattoo drawings

    A wild bull and symbolic designs were imprinted on the bodies of two Egyptians at least 5,000 years ago.

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  10. Neuroscience

    The debate over how long our brains keep making new nerve cells heats up

    Adult humans don’t have newborn nerve cells in a memory-related part of the brain, a controversial paper suggests.

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  11. Physics

    Give double-layer graphene a twist and it superconducts

    When graphene layers are twisted to a “magic angle,” the material superconducts.

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  12. Animals

    This baby bird fossil gives a rare look at ancient avian development

    A 127-million-year-old fossil of a baby bird suggests diversity in how a group of extinct birds grew.

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