News
- Life
Ancestors of today’s placental mammals may never have shared the Earth with dinosaurs
A newly constructed family tree dovetails with the fossil record, but differs considerably from previous genetic studies by suggesting that placental mammals emerged after the dinosaur extinction.
- Animals
Compared with rodents, bat species carry more viruses
Viruses that can jump from animals to people may find the flying mammals a fine place to lurk.
- Life
Inflammation feeds E. coli
Inflammation, normally a defense against microbes, may become counterproductive in the gut by feeding disease-causing bacteria.
- Archaeology
A king’s final hours, told by his mortal remains
The skeleton of Richard III reveals a violent and chaotic end for a controversial English monarch.
- Space
Supernova’s death throes revealed
In archival images, astronomers see giant star’s activity in weeks before supernova.
- Earth
Magnitude 8.0 earthquake strikes Solomon Islands
Temblor is the largest in a month of seismic activity on Australian-Pacific plate boundary.
- Health & Medicine
Link between obesity and vitamin D clarified
People carrying gene variants tied to weight are also prone to deficiency of the sun-derived nutrient, but not vice versa.
- Animals
Mole sniffs the world in stereo
Nostrils of the common mole recognize slight differences in smells to steer it toward its food.
- Humans
Earlier Neandertal demise suggested by redating
Using an improved radiocarbon method, researchers challenge the notion that the species hung on in Iberia for millennia after modern humans arrived in Europe.
- Health & Medicine
Nothing to fear but suffocation
People with a rare brain disorder don’t get scared — except when they breathe carbon dioxide.
- Chemistry
Gold-digging microbe
By spitting out a molecule, a bacterium draws solid gold out of solution.
- Oceans
Life found deep below Antarctic ice
Lake buried under 800 meters of ice hosts cells, researchers find.
