News
- Earth
Remnants from Earth’s birth linger 4.5 billion years later
Shaken, not stirred: Tungsten isotopes reveal that mantle convection has left some remnants of ancient Earth untouched for 4.5 billion years.
By Beth Geiger - Life
Gut microbe may challenge textbook on complex cells
Science may finally have found a complex eukaryote cell that has lost all of its mitochondria.
By Susan Milius - Life
How to trap sperm
Lab-made beads can trick and trap sperm, potentially preventing pregnancy or selecting sperm for fertility treatments.
- Health & Medicine
Healthiest weight just might be ‘overweight’
The body mass index tied to lowest risk of death has risen since the 1970s. It now falls squarely in the “overweight” category.
- Quantum Physics
Physicists smash particle imitators
A new quasiparticle collider smashes together the faux-particles that appear in solid materials.
- Health & Medicine
Heartburn drugs can damage cells that line blood vessels
A type of heartburn drugs called proton pump inhibitors may damage cells that line the blood vessels. The results, though controversial, hint at an explanation for PPI’s link to serious side effects, including risk of dementia and heart attack.
By Meghan Rosen - Planetary Science
Long-running lunar mission reveals moon’s surprises
Seven years into its mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is still going strong and finding surprises on the moon.
- Quantum Physics
Communicating covertly goes quantum
Researchers are working to make quantum messages that are undetectable.
- Life
Some Crohn’s genes make cells deaf to messages from good gut bacteria
Genes linked to Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease, might make people’s immune cells miss out on helpful messages sent by friendly gut bacteria.
By Meghan Rosen - Anthropology
Asian primates hit hard by ancient climate change
Chinese fossils suggest primates diverged in Asia and Africa around 34 million years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Neuroscience
A breakdown product, not ketamine, may ease depression
Ketamine’s breakdown product, not the drug itself, eases depression, a mouse study suggests.
- Earth
Rainwater can help trigger earthquakes
Rainwater plays a major role in the triggering of earthquakes along New Zealand’s Alpine Fault.