News
- Health & Medicine
Politics aside, hydroxychloroquine could (maybe) help fight COVID-19
Hydroxychloroquine may help prevent COVID-19, or it may not. Studies are under way to find out. Meanwhile, here’s what we know.
- Life
Pollen-deprived bumblebees may speed up plant blooming by biting leaves
In a pollen shortage, some bees nick holes in tomato leaves that accelerate flowering, and pollen production, by weeks.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
There are two versions of the coronavirus. One’s not more dangerous than the other
Factors such as a person’s age and white blood cell counts matter more for disease severity when it comes to COVID-19, a study finds.
- Astronomy
The oldest disk galaxy yet found formed more than 12 billion years ago
A spinning disk galaxy similar to the Milky Way formed just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, much earlier than astronomers thought was possible.
- Tech
A new artificial eye mimics and may outperform human eyes
A new artificial eyeball boasts a field of view and reaction time similar to that of real eyes.
- Genetics
The oldest genetic link between Asians and Native Americans was found in Siberia
DNA from a fragment of a 14,000-year-old tooth suggests that Native Americans have widespread Asian ancestry.
By Bruce Bower - Humans
Births in the United States have dropped to a 34-year low
Recessions can influence the birth rate, but births haven’t rebounded yet since the country’s last economic downturn in the late 2000s.
- Health & Medicine
New data suggest people aren’t getting reinfected with the coronavirus
People who recover from COVID-19 but later test positive again for the coronavirus don’t carry infectious virus, a study finds.
- Health & Medicine
Indoor, high-intensity fitness classes may help spread the coronavirus
As more U.S. states reopen and people return to public life, dance fitness classes in South Korea tell a cautionary tale.
- Climate
Daily global CO2 emissions dropped dramatically as COVID-19 kept people home
Daily carbon dioxide emissions in early April were 17 percent lower than average daily emissions for 2019, thanks to government policies to restrict the spread of the coronavirus.
- Chemistry
Here’s a clue to how this tube worm’s slime can glow blue for days
Mucus oozed by a marine tube worm can glow for up to 72 hours. New results suggest that the light may sustain itself through some clever chemistry.
- Quantum Physics
Physicists exploit a quantum rule to create a new kind of crystal
Cold atoms can form crystals as a result of the Pauli exclusion principle.