Uncategorized
- Chemistry
Four newest elements on periodic table get names
Four elements officially recognized in December, highlighted in yellow, now have names that honor Japan, Moscow, Tennessee and physicist Yuri Oganessian.
- Life
Obesity’s weight gain message starts in gut
Acetate made by gut microbes stimulates weight gain, research in rodents suggests.
- Anthropology
Hobbit history gets new preface
Jaw, tooth fossils put new spin on evolution of Homo floresiensis.
- Life
By leaking light, squid hides in plain sight
Glass squid camouflage their eyes with wonderfully inefficient bioluminescence.
- Astronomy
Space-based probe passes tests for gravitational wave detection
The LISA Pathfinder mission has demonstrated that future observatories in space could detect gravitational waves.
- Earth
Spy satellites reveal early start to Antarctic ice shelf collapse
Declassified spy satellite images reveal that Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf began destabilizing decades earlier than previously thought.
- Environment
Bikini Atoll radiation levels remain alarmingly high
Lingering radiation levels from nuclear bomb tests on Bikini Atoll are far higher than previously estimated.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum weirdness survives space travel
Quantum weirdness travels from Earth to space and back again.
- Animals
Pygmy blue whales deepen their moans
Sri Lankan pygmy blue whales are tweaking their calls — making one part deeper and keeping another part the same — but scientists can’t say why. The finding injects a new wrinkle in theories about blue whale calls.
- Genetics
Ancient DNA tells of two origins for dogs
Genetic analysis of an ancient Irish mutt reveals complicated history of dog domestication.
- Animals
Tiny plastics cause big problems for perch, lab study finds
Researchers have linked microplastics to feeding behavior changes and development issues in Baltic Sea perch.
- Planetary Science
Jupiter’s stormy weather no tempest in teapot
New radio observations reveal how ammonia moves about beneath Jupiter’s clouds and provide a sneak peek at what NASA’s Juno mission will learn later this year.
