News

  1. Genetics

    A genetic analysis hints at why COVID-19 can mess with smell

    People with some genetic variants close to smell-related genes had an 11 percent higher risk of losing their sense of taste or smell.

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  2. Animals

    Part donkey, part wild ass, the kunga is the oldest known hybrid bred by humans

    Syria’s 4,500-year-old kungas were donkey-wild ass hybrids, genetic analysis reveals, so the earliest known example of humans crossing animal species.

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  3. Astronomy

    An early outburst portends a star’s imminent death

    An eruption before a stellar explosion was the first early warning sign for a standard type of supernova.

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  4. Quantum Physics

    Quantum particles can feel the influence of gravitational fields they never touch

    A quantum phenomenon predicted in 1959, the Aharonov-Bohm effect, also applies to gravity.

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  5. Planetary Science

    Organic molecules in an ancient Mars meteorite formed via geology, not alien life

    Analysis of an ancient Martian meteorite reveals that organic molecules within it were formed by geologic processes rather than alien life.

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  6. Astronomy

    Astronomers identified a second possible exomoon

    Kepler 1708 b i, a newly discovered candidate for an exoplanet moon, has a radius about 2.6 times that of Earth, a new study suggests.

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  7. Animals

    The largest group of nesting fish ever found lives beneath Antarctic ice

    Researchers stumbled upon a fish breeding colony of unprecedented size, spanning a territory slightly larger than Baltimore.

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  8. Anthropology

    Homo sapiens bones in East Africa are at least 36,000 years older than once thought

    Analyses of remnants of a volcanic blast push the age of East Africa’s oldest known H. sapiens fossils at Ethiopia’s Omo site to 233,000 years or more.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Omicron forces us to rethink COVID-19 testing and treatments

    At-home rapid tests may miss the speedy variant early on, and some treatments, such as some monoclonal antibodies, no longer work.

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  10. Animals

    Female dolphins have a clitoris much like humans’

    The similarities suggest female dolphins experience sexual pleasure, which may explain why the species is so randy all the time.

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  11. Planetary Science

    Oxygen-rich exoplanets may be geologically active

    Experiments show that rocks exposed to higher concentrations of oxygen have a lower melting temperature than rocks exposed to lower amounts.

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  12. Animals

    Here’s what goldfish driving ‘cars’ tell us about navigation

    When measuring intelligence, the saying goes, don’t judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. But what about its ability to drive a vehicle?

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