Notebook
- Health & Medicine
50 years later, vaccines have eliminated some diseases
Vaccines have come a long way in 50 years.
- Earth
Mount St. Helens is a cold-hearted volcano
Geophysics reveals that deep beneath Mount St. Helens, there’s no source of hot magma, just a wedge of cold serpentinite rock. Where is the missing heat?
By Beth Geiger - Earth
The southern San Andreas has a smaller, neighboring fault to its west
The newly-discovered Salton Trough Fault runs parallel to the southern San Andreas Fault in California, potentially affecting the region’s earthquake risk.
- Health & Medicine
Riding roller coasters might help dislodge kidney stones
Researchers took a 3-D printed kidney containing tiny stones and urine for a spin on a roller coaster and found their patients’ stories of kidney stones passing on the ride to have merit.
By Laura Beil - Earth
There’s a new way to stop an earthquake: put a volcano in its path
An earthquake rupturing along a fault in Japan was blockaded by the magma chamber below the Mount Aso volcano, researchers propose.
- Health & Medicine
Staph infections still a concern
Scientists have been searching for a vaccine against a deadly microbe for 50 years.
- Tech
How to read a book without opening it
New technique allows scientists to read the pages of an ancient text without opening the book.
- Animals
Melatonin makes midshipman fish sing
Melatonin lets people sleep but starts male midshipman fish melodiously humming their hearts out.
By Susan Milius - Climate
Extreme lightning events set records
A lightning flash stretching 321 kilometers across and one that lasted 7.74 seconds have been named the most extreme events on record, thanks to a new rule change.
- Materials Science
Superflexible, 3-D printed “bones” trigger new growth
New ultraflexible material could be the future of bone repair, but awaits human testing.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, noise was a nuisance (it still is)
In 1966, scientists warned of the physical and psychological dangers of a louder world.
- Oceans
Atlantic monument is home to unique and varied creatures
A region of ocean off the coast of Cape Cod has become the first U.S. marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean.