News
- Space
Human spaceflight’s new era is fraught with medical and ethical questions
A new project called the Space Omics and Medical Atlas aims to study and document astronaut health as commercial spaceflight starts to take off.
- Health & Medicine
Gen X has higher cancer rates than their baby boomer parents
An unexplained uptick in cancer diagnoses among Gen Xers might be bad news for millennials and Gen Z.
- Health & Medicine
Can humans get chronic wasting disease from deer?
Tests on brain organoids suggest the disease-causing prions face a tough barrier to infect people, but ruling out transmission is a difficult task.
- Earth
Geoscientists found the most dangerous part of a famous West Coast fault
Seismic data reveal that the Cascadia megathrust consists of at least four segments, the most dangerous of which may lurk offshore of Washington.
- Anthropology
Fossil finds amplify Europe’s status as a hotbed of great ape evolution
A kneecap and two teeth belonged to the smallest known great ape, a study contends. If so, it’s the first to coexist with another great ape in Europe.
- Health & Medicine
Wildfire smoke may cause tens of thousands of premature deaths
A modeling study of California wildfires from 2008 through 2018 estimates that smoke exposure was responsible for as many as 55,700 premature deaths.
- Life
This protist unfolds its ‘neck’ up to 30 times its body length to scout prey
With geometry’s help, 'Lacrymaria olor' can extend its long, necklike protrusion in less than 30 seconds.
- Genetics
Horses may have been domesticated twice. Only one attempt stuck
Genetic evidence suggests that the ancestors of domestic horses were bred for mobility about 4,200 years ago.
- Space
China’s Chang’e-6 snagged the first samples from the farside of the moon
The samples, which will be returned to Earth in late June, could help researchers figure out why the moon’s two sides are so starkly different.
- Earth
In 2018, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupted like a stomp rocket
The stomp rocket–like mechanism is a newly observed type of eruption.
- Space
The sun is entering solar maximum. Expect auroras, and more
May saw the strongest auroras in recent memory. As the sun gets more active, those light shows may be a preview of what’s to come until at least 2026.
- Earth
Freshwater first appeared on Earth 4 billion years ago, ancient crystals hint
Oxygen ratios in ancient zircon crystals suggest that the planet’s water cycle got started hundreds of millions of years earlier than thought.
