Uncategorized
- Physics
Scientists seek materials that defy friction at the atomic level
Scientists investigate superslippery materials and other unusual friction feats.
- Life
Monkeys can use basic logic to decipher the order of items in a list
Rhesus macaque monkeys don’t need rewards to learn and remember how items are ranked in a list, a mental feat that may prove handy in the wild.
- Health & Medicine
A new study challenges the idea that the placenta has a microbiome
A large study of more than 500 women finds little evidence of microbes in the placenta, contrary to previous reports on the placental microbiome.
- Tech
Tiny magnetic coils could help break down microplastic pollution
Carbon nanotubes designed to release plastic-eroding chemicals could clear the long-lasting trash from waterways.
- Paleontology
This newfound predator may have terrorized the Cambrian seafloor
A newly discovered spaceship-shaped predator raked through the Cambrian seafloor in search of food.
- Astronomy
TESS has found the first-ever ‘ultrahot Neptune’
NASA’s TESS telescope has spotted a world that could be a bridge between other types of exoplanets: hot Jupiters and scorched Earths.
- Cosmology
Debate over the universe’s expansion rate may unravel physics. Is it a crisis?
Measurements of the Hubble constant don’t line up. Scientists debate what that means.
- Particle Physics
How a 2017 radioactive plume may be tied to Russia and nixed neutrino research
A botched attempt at producing radioactive material needed for a neutrino experiment may have released ruthenium-106 to the atmosphere in 2017.
- Astronomy
In a first, physicists re-created the sun’s spiraling solar wind in a lab
Some of the sun’s fundamental physics have been re-created with plasma inside a vacuum chamber
- Health & Medicine
Positive attitudes about aging may pay off in better health
Research into the mind-body connection shows that attitude is everything when it comes to healthy aging.
- Health & Medicine
Readers inquire about measles, vaccine hesitancy and more
Readers had questions about vaccine-hesitant parents, measles and DNA sequencing.
- Science & Society
You’re only as old as you perceive yourself to be
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute discusses how people’s attitudes about aging can impact our physical health.
