Uncategorized
- Environment
Humans’ stuff vastly outweighs humans
The human-made technosphere weighs 30 trillion tons and surpasses the natural biosphere in mass and diversity, researchers estimate.
- Life
Asteroid barrage, ancient marine life boom not linked
Impacts from asteroid debris probably didn’t trigger the boom in marine animal diversity around 471 million years ago during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event.
- Paleontology
Baby dinosaurs took three to six months to hatch
Growth lines on teeth indicate a surprisingly long incubation period.
- Physics
Chemists strike gold, solve mystery about precious metal’s properties
A longstanding puzzle about gold’s properties has been solved with more complex theoretical calculations.
- Archaeology
Real-life adventure tale details search for legendary city
"The Lost City of the Monkey God" recounts archaeological expedition to uncover truth behind Honduras’ “White City" myth.
- Life
What a mosquito’s immune system can tell us about fighting malaria
Immune system messengers carried in microscopic sacs help mosquitoes fend off malaria, new research suggests.
- Animals
Desert ants look to the sky, rely on memory to navigate backward
Desert ants appear to use a combination of visual memory and celestial cues to make it back to the nest walking butt-first, researchers find.
- Climate
Earth’s last major warm period was as hot as today
Sea surface temperatures today are comparable to those around 125,000 years ago, a time when sea levels were 6 to 9 meters higher, new research suggests.
- Ecosystems
In debate over origin of fairy circles, both sides might be right
Odd bare spots called fairy circles in African grasslands might be caused by both termites and plants.
- Science & Society
Cancer studies get mixed grades on redo tests
Replications of cancer studies fail to reproduce some results.
- Climate
Monsoon deluges turned ancient Sahara green
The ancient Sahara Desert sprouted trees and lakes for thousands of years thanks to intense rainfall.
- Climate
For three years in a row, Earth breaks heat record
Spurred by climate change and heat from a strong El Niño, 2016 was the hottest year on record.
