Uncategorized
- Health & Medicine
The body’s response to allergic asthma also helps protect against COVID-19
A protein called IL-13 mounts defenses that include virus-trapping mucus and armor that shields airway cells from infection.
- Earth
Ancient zircons may record the dawn of plate tectonics
A change in gemstone composition starting about 3.8 billion years ago may offer the earliest record of one tectonic plate sliding over another.
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A changing climate means changes on the plate
Editor in chief Nancy Shute discusses the future of food through the lens of climate change.
- Health & Medicine
How I decided on a second COVID-19 booster shot
Boosters help for a short time, and mixing vaccines doesn’t seem to push the immune system toward making unhelpful antibodies, studies show.
- Paleontology
Pterosaurs may have had brightly colored feathers on their heads
The fossil skull of a flying reptile hints that feathers originated about 100 million years earlier than scientists thought.
- Animals
Dog breed is a surprisingly poor predictor of individual behavior
Despite the popular conviction that dog breeds are associated with specific traits, breed accounts for only 9 percent of behavioral differences.
- Neuroscience
Mom’s voice holds a special place in kids’ brains. That changes for teens
Unfamiliar voices hold special appeal for teens, a sign of a shift from a focus on mostly family to wider networks, brain scans suggest.
- Health & Medicine
Joggers naturally pace themselves to conserve energy even on short runs
Data from fitness trackers and treadmill tests challenge ideas about what drives speed.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, scientists were seeking the cause of psoriasis
In the 1970s, scientists found a link between a chemical messenger and psoriasis, a complex inflammatory skin disorder.
- Plants
Leonardo da Vinci’s rule for how trees branch was close, but wrong
An update to da Vinci’s elegant, 500-year-old “rule of trees” offers a powerful, new way to describe the structure of almost any leafy tree.
- Health & Medicine
Antibiotics diminish babies’ immune response to key vaccines
With each round of antibiotics during a child’s first two years, antibody levels to four vaccines dropped further from what’s considered protective.
