News
-
LifeHuman eye spots single photons
Human eyes are sensitive enough to detect individual particles of light.
-
LifeDistinctions blur between wolf species
Red and eastern wolves might be gray wolf/coyote blends instead of distinct species
-
EarthNew scenario proposed for birth of Pacific Plate
The Pacific tectonic plate formed at the junction of three other plates and above of the remains of a submerged plate, geophysicists propose.
-
LifeThe nose knows how to fight staph
A bacterium isolated from the nose produces a new antibiotic active against resistant pathogens.
By Eva Emerson -
ChemistryVaping’s toxic vapors come mainly from e-liquid solvents
New study homes in on a primary source of toxic vaping compounds: the thermal breakdown of solvents used to dissolve flavorings in e-liquids. And older, dirtier e-cigs generate more of these toxicants, study shows.
By Janet Raloff -
GeneticsDolly the Sheep’s cloned sisters aging gracefully
Cloning doesn’t cause premature aging in sheep.
-
EarthAncient air bubbles could revise history of Earth’s oxygen
Pockets of ancient air trapped in rock salt for around 815 million years suggest that oxygen was abundant well before the first animals appear in the fossil record.
-
CosmologyDebate accelerates on universe’s expansion speed
A puzzling mismatch is plaguing two methods for measuring how fast the universe is expanding.
-
EarthHow dinosaurs hopped across an ocean
Land bridges may have once allowed dinosaurs and other animals to travel between North America and Europe around 150 million years ago, a researcher proposes.
-
LifeYeasts hide in many lichen partnerships
Yeasts newly discovered in common lichens challenge more than a century of thinking about what defines the lichen symbiosis.
By Susan Milius -
AnthropologyHumans, birds communicate to collaborate
Bird species takes hunter-gatherers to honeybees’ nests when called on.
By Bruce Bower -
GeneticsEvolution of gut bacteria tracks splits in primate species
Primates and microbes have been splitting in sync for at least 10 million years.