News
- Oceans
Volcanic eruptions that depleted ocean oxygen may have set off the Great Dying
Massive eruptions from volcanoes spewing greenhouse gases 252 million years ago may have triggered Earth’s biggest mass extinction.
- Animals
Here’s how geckos (almost) walk on water
New high-speed video reveals how geckos use a hybrid walking-swimming gait in water to reach speeds similar to those on land.
- Genetics
A 5,000-year-old mass grave harbors the oldest plague bacteria ever found
DNA from an ancient strain of the plague-causing bacterium could help uncover the origins of the deadly disease.
- Health & Medicine
Baboons survive 6 months after getting a pig heart transplant
A team of German scientists used new methods to successfully transplant genetically modified and fully functioning pig hearts into baboons.
- Particle Physics
A controversial sighting of dark matter is looking even shakier
Two dark matter experiments disagree despite using the same type of detector material.
- Astronomy
Astronomers find far-flung wind from a black hole in the universe’s first light
The detection of black hole winds far from their host galaxy could reveal details of how galaxies and black holes grow up together.
- Health & Medicine
In a first, a woman with a uterus transplanted from a deceased donor gives birth
After receiving a uterus from a deceased donor, a woman gave birth to a healthy girl in December of 2017.
- Physics
Scientists’ collection of gravitational waves just got a lot bigger
The biggest black hole merger yet seen created one set of the spacetime ripples.
- Animals
Rebel honeybee workers lay eggs when their queen is away
A honeybee queen’s absence in the colony triggers some workers to turn queen-like and lay eggs, sometimes in other colonies.
- Planetary Science
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has finally arrived at asteroid Bennu
Planetary scientists hope the probe will reveal if such carbon-rich asteroids helped kick-start life on Earth.
- Life
These new tweezers let scientists do biopsies on living cells
Nanotweezers that can pluck molecules from cells without killing them could enable real-time analysis of the insides of healthy and diseased cells.
- Life
Dads, not just moms, can pass along mitochondrial DNA
Data from three families suggest that in rare cases children can inherit mitochondria from their fathers.
