Notebook
- Astronomy
The sun isn’t the only light source behind that summer tan
About 99.999% of the light that creates a suntan comes from the sun; the rest comes from the Big Bang and galaxies throughout the universe.
- Genetics
To study Galápagos cormorants, a geneticist gets creative
To collect DNA from four cormorant species, this scientist called in bird scientists far and wide.
- Oceans
First U.S. ocean monument named in the Atlantic
A region of ocean off the coast of Cape Cod has become the first U.S. marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean, President Barack Obama announced.
- Paleontology
Pterosaurs weren’t all super-sized in the Late Cretaceous
A 77-million-year-old flying reptile may be the smallest pterosaur of the Late Cretaceous.
- Planetary Science
Rock star Freddie Mercury now has his own space rock
Queen front man Freddie Mercury is the latest in a long list of celebrities to have an asteroid named after him.
- Genetics
Genetic surgery is closer to reality
A molecular scalpel called CRISPR/Cas9 has made gene editing possible.
- Life
California’s goby is actually two different fish
One fish, two fish: California’s tidewater goby is two species.
- Animals
Dwarf lemurs don’t agree on sleep
Fat-tailed dwarf lemurs’ surprising hibernation-sleep doesn’t show up in ground-hibernating relatives.
- Paleontology
Greenland may be home to Earth’s oldest fossils
Dating to 3.7 billion years ago, mounds of sediment called stromatolites found in Greenland may be the oldest fossilized evidence of life on Earth.
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- Health & Medicine
Clean inside those bagpipes — and trumpets and clarinets
Bagpipes’ moist interiors may be the perfect breeding ground for yeasts and molds.
- Neuroscience
Computers refine epilepsy treatment
Surgeons harnessed computers in 1966 to pinpoint source of epilepsy in the brain.
