News
- Environment
Air pollutants enter body through skin
Although scientists have largely viewed skin as an unimportant portal to blood for toxic air pollutants, new human data show that skin can surpass lungs as a route of entry.
- Genetics
Gene editing makes pigs safer for human transplants
CRISPR/Cas9 disables multiple viruses at one time
- Quantum Physics
Future quantum computing could exploit old technology
Silicon transistors have been modified and patched together to form logic gates that could perform calculations in future quantum computers.
- Oceans
Oxygen in Black Sea has declined by more than a third since 1955
The Black Sea’s oxygen-rich surface layer shrank by more than a third from 1955 through 2013, compressing marine habitats and bringing toxic hydrogen sulfide closer to the surface.
- Genetics
Chemical tags on DNA appear to differ between gay and straight men
DNA marks distinguished homosexual men from heterosexual men with in a small twin study.
- Humans
Into Africa: Ancient skeleton sheds light on reverse migration
Ancient man’s DNA helps reveal extent of Eurasian farmers’ back-to-Africa migration some 3,000 years ago.
- Science & Society
Nobels note neutrinos, DNA, drugs
The Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry and physiology or medicine ran the gamut this year, honoring both fundamental science discoveries and research with real-world impacts.
- Chemistry
Chemistry Nobel granted for deciphering DNA repair
Three researchers win chemistry Nobel for working out how cells fix damaged genetic material
- Animals
Oldest pregnant horselike fossil found
A 48-million-year-old fossil of an early horse and fetus is the oldest and best-preserved specimen of its kind.
- Animals
No eyes, no problem for color-sensing coral larvae
Switching colors of underwater light can switch preferences for where staghorn corals choose their forever homes.
- Particle Physics
Neutrinos’ identity shift snares physics Nobel
Arthur McDonald and Takaaki Kajita shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery that neutrinos oscillate between different types, which demonstrates that the particles have mass.
- Humans
Chimpanzees show surprising flexibility on two feet
Chimpanzees’ upper-body flexibility while walking upright suggests ancient hominids walked effectively.
