Notebook
- Animals
Early research asked whether cats dream
Early research asked whether cats dream; researchers still don’t know definitively.
- Astronomy
Erupting volcanoes may cause exoplanet’s temperature extremes
Temperatures fluctuate wildly on a nearby exoplanet, and volcanoes might be the culprit.
- Paleontology
Oldest known avian relative of today’s birds found in China
Fossil find suggests modern birds’ oldest avian relative lived about 6 million years before previous record holder.
- Plants
How slow plants make ridiculous seeds
Coco de mer palms scrimp, save and take not quite forever creating the world’s largest seeds.
- Plants
Medfly control methods were ready for pest’s influx
50 years ago, researchers prepared to greet Mediterranean fruit flies with sterile males.
- Ecosystems
Just 1 percent of Amazon’s trees hold half of its carbon
Roughly 1 percent of tree species in the Amazon rainforest account for half of the jungle’s carbon storage.
- Neuroscience
Brain on display
In her online videos, Nancy Kanwisher goes where few other neuroscientists go.
- Astronomy
Lit-up gas clouds hint at galaxies’ violent pasts
Voorwerpjes, tendrils of gas that orbit galaxies, continue to glow tens of thousands of years after being blasted with ultraviolet radiation.
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- Animals
When mom serves herself as dinner
For this spider, extreme motherhood ends with a fatal family feast.
- Animals
Whether froglets switch sexes distinguishes ‘sex races’
Rana temporaria froglets start all female in one region of Europe; in another region, new froglets of the same species have gonads of either sex.
- Psychology
Big ears don’t necessarily come with baggage
In a small study, adults judged children and teens with big ears as intelligent and likable.
