News

  1. Animals

    Chinese mountain cats swap DNA with domestic cats, but aren’t their ancestors

    DNA suggests little-studied Chinese mountain cats have been rendezvousing with pet cats on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau since the 1950s.

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  2. Astronomy

    Any aliens orbiting these 2,000 stars could spot Earth crossing the sun

    Alien astronomers in those star systems could discover Earth the way we find exoplanets: by watching for a dip in starlight.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    How COVID-19 created a perfect storm for a deadly fungal infection in India

    Amid the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, numbers of rare but dangerous “black fungus” infections have skyrocketed in the country.

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  4. Space

    Cosmic filaments may be the biggest spinning objects in space

    Filaments of dark matter and galaxies, which can stretch millions of light-years, might help astronomers figure out the origins of cosmic spin.

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  5. Earth

    A satellite’s view of a deadly 2019 eruption could improve volcano monitoring

    Monitoring volcanoes from space could enhance scientists’ understanding of, and ability to predict, even small eruptions.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    How one medical team is bringing COVID-19 vaccines to hard-to-reach Hispanic communities

    Unidos Contra COVID’s Spanish-speaking volunteers go to where Philadelphia’s Hispanic people gather, giving shots and addressing concerns one-on-one.

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  7. Climate

    Collapse may not always be inevitable for marine ice cliffs

    Runaway collapse of ice cliffs could dramatically boost sea level. But these cliffs may not be so vulnerable, new simulations suggest.

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  8. Quantum Physics

    Physicists used LIGO’s mirrors to approach a quantum limit

    Using LIGO’s laser beams to reduce jiggling rather than detect gravitational waves, scientists have gotten closer to the realm of quantum mechanics.

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  9. Astronomy

    Dust and a cold spell on Betelgeuse could explain why the giant star dimmed

    Scientists had two options to explain Betelgeuse’s weird behavior in late 2019. They chose both.

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  10. Science & Society

    Moral judgments about an activity’s COVID-19 risk can lead people astray

    People use values and beliefs as a shortcut to determine how risky an activity is during the pandemic. Those biases can lead people astray.

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  11. Chemistry

    Many cosmetics contain hidden, potentially dangerous ‘forever chemicals’

    Scientists found signs of long-lasting PFAS compounds in about half of tested makeup products, especially waterproof mascaras and lipsticks.

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  12. Plants

    A widely studied lab plant has revealed a previously unknown organ

    A cantilever-like plant part long evaded researchers’ notice in widely studied Arabidopsis thaliana, grown in hundreds of labs worldwide.

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