News
- Plants
Leonardo da Vinci’s rule for how trees branch was close, but wrong
An update to da Vinci’s elegant, 500-year-old “rule of trees” offers a powerful, new way to describe the structure of almost any leafy tree.
- Health & Medicine
Antibiotics diminish babies’ immune response to key vaccines
With each round of antibiotics during a child’s first two years, antibody levels to four vaccines dropped further from what’s considered protective.
- Space
All of the bases in DNA and RNA have now been found in meteorites
Scientists have detected adenine and guanine in meteorites for decades and seen hints of uracil. But cytosine and thymine had remained elusive.
- Tech
This camera lens can focus up close and far away at the same time
Inspired by the eye of an extinct trilobite species, the large depth of field can help with imaging techniques to create 3-D photos.
- Animals
These male spiders catapult away to avoid being cannibalized after sex
In a leap for survival, male Philoponella prominens spiders leverage hydraulic pressure to extend leg joints and fling themselves off hungry females.
- Physics
Gravitational waves gave a new black hole a high-speed ‘kick’
Ripples in spacetime revealed that two black holes united into one, which then sped off at around 5 million kilometers per hour.
- Paleontology
Glowing spider fossils may exist thanks to tiny algae’s goo
Analyzing 22-million-year-old spider fossils from France revealed that they were covered in a tarry black substance that fluoresces.
- Particle Physics
The Large Hadron Collider has restarted with upgraded proton-smashing potential
Physicists will start taking data this summer once the revamped Large Hadron Collider gets up to full speed.
- Astronomy
‘Goldilocks’ stars may pose challenges for any nearby habitable planets
Orange dwarfs emit far-ultraviolet light long after birth, stressing the atmospheres of potentially life-bearing worlds.
- Planetary Science
U.S. planetary scientists want to explore Uranus and Enceladus next
A report on recommendations for the next 10 years of U.S. planetary science prioritizes sending an orbiter to Uranus and an “orbilander” to Enceladus.
- Planetary Science
Europa may have much more shallow liquid water than scientists thought
Mysterious pairs of ridges scar Jupiter’s moon Europa. Analyzing a similar set in Greenland suggests shallow water is behind the features’ formation.
- Planetary Science
Here’s how NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has spent 1 year on Mars
The first flying robot on the Red Planet arrived as a technology demonstration. It’s now a trusty scout for its rover partner, Perseverance.
