News
- Life
Among bass, easiest to catch are best dads
Recreational fishing may be inadvertent evolutionary force, favoring cautious fish over better caretakers of the young.
By Susan Milius - Life
Gut bacteria may affect cardiovascular risk
An abundance of antioxidant-producing microbes seems to keep plaques from breaking free and causing heart attacks and stroke.
- Planetary Science
Mars rover deploys final instrument
Soil analysis finds organic compounds of uncertain origin.
- Humans
Help Wanted: Must play well with high-powered coworkers
Leisure activities make or break job applicants at major banking, legal and consulting outfits.
By Bruce Bower - Life
Immune disease an added blow to fungus-ridden bat populations
Rare immune complication previously seen only in people devastates animals that had appeared to evade white nose syndrome.
By Janet Raloff - Space
First rock from the sun turns out to have ice
Frozen material at the planet’s poles likely came from comet or asteroid impacts.
By Tanya Lewis - Health & Medicine
Simulated brain mimics human quirks
Model representing 2.5 million neurons performs calculations, issues instructions for a behavior, and then expands its decision into action.
- Earth
Grand Canyon could be much older than thought
Disputed dating of rock erosion pegs the ancient chasm as 70 million years old.
- Earth
Shrinking polar ice caused one-fifth of sea level rise
Comprehensive analysis quantifies ice sheet loss in Greenland and Antarctica.
By Erin Wayman - Humans
Genetic diversity exploded in recent millennia
Among hundreds of thousands of DNA variants identified in a study, a large majority arose in the past 5,000 years.
- Life
Blue whales’ diet and exercise rolled into one
Marine predator performs underwater acrobatics for best chance at catching a meal.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Auditory test predicts coma awakening
While all patients in a new study could discriminate between sounds early on, those whose ability improved during the first 48 hours wound up recovering.
By Tanya Lewis