News
- Health & Medicine
Mucus prevents hand sanitizers from quickly killing the flu
Flu viruses can hold out for minutes against ethanol when encased in wet mucus.
- Health & Medicine
Air pollution can reach the placenta around a developing baby
A small study of women living in Belgium found soot embedded in their placental tissue.
- Space
The Milky Way’s supermassive black hole reached record brightness this year
The big black hole at the center of the galaxy recently flared twice as bright as ever seen before in near-infrared wavelengths.
- Physics
Gravitational waves from a ringing black hole support the no-hair theorem
A new study of gravitational waves from merging black holes agrees with the predictions of the general theory of relativity.
- Life
Climate change may be throwing coral sex out of sync
Several widespread corals in the Red Sea are flubbing cues to spawn en masse.
- Humans
An island grave site hints at far-flung ties among ancient Americans
Great Lakes and southeastern coastal hunter-gatherers had direct contact around 4,000 years ago, a study suggests.
- Planetary Science
Astronomers have spotted a second interstellar object
Researchers will be able to watch what appears to be an interstellar comet swoop through the solar system for about a year.
- Agriculture
Birds fed a common pesticide lost weight rapidly and had migration delays
Scientists have previously implicated neonicotinoid pesticides in declining bee populations. Now a study suggests that songbirds are affected, too.
- Tech
This device harnesses the cold night sky to generate electricity in the dark
A new thermoelectric generator uses the temperature difference between Earth and outer space to create electricity after the sun goes down.
- Astronomy
This may be the first known exoplanet with rain and clouds of water droplets
For the first time, astronomers have detected water vapor and possibly signs of clouds and even rain in the air of a potentially habitable exoplanet.
- Astronomy
Giant radio bubbles spew from near the Milky Way’s central black hole
New structures found at the heart of our galaxy join other bubbles, chimneys and filaments that hint at a turbulent past.
- Humans
Artists who paint with their feet have ‘toe maps’ in their brains
Brain specialization comes with toe specialization in people who use their feet for painting, eating and writing.
