News
- Science & Society
Short memory can be good strategy
Game theory reveals that there’s a limit to the effectiveness of relying on prior results to predict competitors’ behavior.
- Materials Science
Electron waves refract negatively
Waves of electrons have been bent backward in a sheet of graphene, allowing physicists to focus electrons the way a lens focuses light.
- Animals
Loss of vision meant energy savings for cavefish
Novel measurement feeds idea that tight energy budgets favored vision loss in cavefish.
- Planetary Science
Asteroid impacts may explain Venus’ missing oxygen
Asteroid impacts on Venus might have helped sequester oxygen left behind when Earth’s sister planet lost its water, new simulations show.
- Health & Medicine
Less vitamin D and melatonin bad for multiple sclerosis
Vitamin D and melatonin play important roles in multiple sclerosis.
- Life
Humans adjust walking style for energy efficiency
Humans can adjust their steps to walk in a way that uses the least amount of energy.
- Anthropology
Fossils suggest new species from human genus
Undated South African cave fossils may reveal a new species in the human genus.
- Neuroscience
Misfolded proteins implicated in more brain diseases
Alzheimer’s, other disorders show similarity to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other prion infections.
- Life
Small number of genes trigger embryo development
New views of early embryo development reveal differences between humans and mice.
- Oceans
Earth got first whiff of oxygen 3.2 billion years ago
Photosynthesis by early cyanobacteria pumped oxygen into Earth’s oceans 200 million years earlier than once thought, new geochemical analyses show.
- Environment
Molting seals shed mercury along with fur
Seals spew amassed mercury when they shed, creating hotbeds of pollution in otherwise pristine coastal environments.
- Materials Science
Graphene shows signs of superconductivity
Ultrathin sheets of carbon can conduct electrical current with no resistance at low temperatures.
