Uncategorized
- Space
Life’s ingredients have been found in samples from asteroid Bennu
Samples from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission show the asteroid Bennu had organic molecules and minerals and possibly salty water and other life ingredients.
By Adam Mann - Health & Medicine
Can you actually die of a broken heart?
Death by heartbreak doesn't just happen in stories. In real life, severe stress can cause the sometimes-fatal takotsubo syndrome.
- Life
This drawing is the oldest known sketch of an insect brain
Found in a roughly 350-year-old manuscript by Dutch biologist Johannes Swammerdam, the scientific illustration shows the brain of a honeybee drone.
- Animals
Chatty bats are more likely to take risks
Bats may broadcast their personalities to others from a distance, new experiments suggest, which could play into social dynamics within a colony.
- Climate
Yes, you can blame climate change for the LA wildfires
Weather data show how humankind’s burning of fossil fuels made the hot, dry, windy weather more likely, setting the stage for the Los Angeles wildfires.
By Nikk Ogasa - Ecosystems
Like flyways for birds, we need to map swimways for fish
Mapping fish migration routes and identifying threats is crucial to protecting freshwater species and their habitats, ecologists argue.
- Animals
Cricket frogs belly flop their way across water
Cricket frogs were once thought to hop on the water’s surface. They actually leap in and out of the water in a form of locomotion called porpoising.
- Earth
Ghostly white northern lights present new auroral mystery
These mysterious whitish-gray glows in the northern lights might be cousins of the mauve light streak known as STEVE.
- Astronomy
A cosmic ‘Platypus’ might link two astronomical mysteries
A flash of light called the Platypus has hallmarks of a mid-sized black hole shredding a star and a type of burst thought to be a stellar explosion.
- Animals
Fever’s link with a key kind of immunity is surprisingly ancient
When sick, Nile tilapia seek warmer water. That behavioral fever triggers a specialized immune response, hinting the connection evolved long ago.
- Earth
Another danger looms after the LA fires: Devastating debris flows
As wildfires burn the landscape, they prime slopes for debris flows: powerful torrents of rock, mud and water that sweep downhill with deadly momentum.
By Nikk Ogasa - Animals
Mole or marsupial? This subterranean critter with a backward pouch is both
Genetic analyses have solved the riddle of where a marsupial mole fits on the tree of life: It’s a cousin to bilbies, bandicoots and Tasmanian devils.
By Susan Milius