Uncategorized
- Animals
Techno Crow: Do birds build up better tool designs?
Researchers surveying tool use by New Caledonian crows propose that the birds may be the first animals besides people shown to ratchet up the sophistication of their technology by sharing design improvements.
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A Tale of the Tapeworm: Parasite ploy suggests drug-delivery tactic
A chemical used by tapeworms to slow intestinal pulsations may help people absorb drugs more efficiently.
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No Rest for the Waking: Brain cells for alertness fire without cues
The brain cells that keep people awake fire spontaneously and continuously on their own, suggesting that sleep depends on signals from other brain regions that quiet these neurons.
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Original Kin: Six-legged bugs may have evolved twice
Insects may have evolved independently from other six-legged land bugs and may be more closely related to crustaceans than to their fellow so-called hexapods.
- Astronomy
Cosmic Afterglow: Gamma-ray bursts may one-up themselves
New observations suggest that gamma-ray bursts may be even more energetic than scientists had estimated.
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Genetically Driven: Mutation shows up in binge eaters
Overweight binge eaters are more likely to harbor a genetic mutation that disrupts brain signals governing satiety than are people of normal weight.
- Physics
Muon Manna? Particle shower may spotlight loose nukes
Radiation from space may help border guards spot loose nukes stowed in shipping containers.
- Paleontology
Was T. rex just a big freeloader?
A new study suggests that an ecosystem like today’s African savanna could provide sufficient carrion to nourish a scavenger the size of a Tyrannosaurus rex.
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Tyrannosaurus rex ‘s environment may have provided sufficient carrion for the giant to survive as a scavenger, and studies of its ratio of leg-muscle mass to body mass suggest that it wasn’t speedy enough to be an efficient predator. But this may be only how it ended its life. It didn’t hatch from the egg […]
- Animals
Ants lurk for bees, but bees see ambush
A tropical ant has perfected the un-antlike behavior of hunting by ambush, but its prey, a sweat bee, has developed some tricks of its own.
- Physics
Squirming through space-time
In the exotic realm of curved space, the topography of space itself might provide a propulsion assist—albeit a tiny one.
- Earth
More Arctic clouds may lessen warming
Nearly 2 decades of satellite observations suggest that an increase in Arctic cloudiness at certain times of the year may partially counteract the effects of global warming in the region.
