Uncategorized
- Animals
To zip through water, swordfish reduce drag
A newly discovered oil-producing organ inside the swordfish’s head gives the animal slick skin to swim faster.
- Chemistry
Nuclear bomb debris can reveal blast size, even decades later
Measuring the relative abundance of various elements in debris left over from nuclear bomb tests can reveal the energy released in the initial blast, researchers report.
- Anthropology
New dating suggests younger age for Homo naledi
South African fossil species lived more recently than first thought, study suggests.
- Planetary Science
New clues in search for Planet Nine
Lots of unknowns remain as researchers try to pin down where a possible ninth planet might be hiding in the solar system.
- Planetary Science
The Juno spacecraft is now in orbit around Jupiter
NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully entered orbit around Jupiter, beginning a 20-month investigation of the giant planet’s interior.
- Planetary Science
Mars once had many moons
Mars' moons might be the only two left of a larger family of satellites that helped them form in the wake of an asteroid collision.
- Neuroscience
Rewarding stimulation boosts immune system
Activating feel-good nerve cells boosts mice’s immunity, a new study suggests.
- Life
Letting parasites fight could help battle drug resistance, too
Helping one strain of malaria trounce another in lab mice demonstrates a way of avoiding the evolution of drug resistance.
- Climate
Warming alters mountain plant’s sex ratios
Global warming has different effects on male and female plants. Tracking sex ratio shifts could be a fast signal of climate change, researchers say.
- Climate
Despite volcanic setback, Antarctic ozone hole healing
The September extent of the Antarctic ozone hole has shrunk by about 4.5 million square kilometers since 2000, thanks in large part to the Montreal Protocol.
- Animals
Frigate birds fly nonstop for months
The great frigate bird can fly for up to two months without landing, thanks to a boost from wind and clouds.
- Climate
World will struggle to keep warming to 2 degrees by 2100
Current plans to curb climate change aren’t ambitious enough to limit global warming below 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, new research shows.
