Uncategorized
- Animals
Year in review: Woes of artificial lighting add up for wildlife
Studies published this year add dodging death, flirting and mothering to the tasks that artificial light can discombobulate in wild animals.
By Susan Milius - Particle Physics
Year in review: Collider creates pentaquarks
Two particles discovered in 2015 are each composed of five quarks.
By Andrew Grant - Neuroscience
Year in review: ‘Speed cells’ help make navigation possible
The discovery of speed cells in the brain filled in a missing piece in the understanding of how the brain creates an internal map of the world.
- Environment
Year in review: BPA alternatives aren’t benign
Evidence is accumulating that at least one popular alternative to bisphenol A can enter the body and trigger developmental and physiological changes.
By Janet Raloff - Animals
Year in review: New dates, place proposed for dogs’ beginnings
This year’s dog research suggested older origins and a new location of domestication for man's best friend.
- Humans
Year in review: Native Americans are Kennewick kin
Ancient DNA identified 8,500-year-old Kennewick Man as a Native American relative.
By Bruce Bower - Genetics
Year in review: Fluke extinction surprises lab
A die-off of bacteria in a carefully controlled lab experiment offered an evolutionary lesson this year: Survival depends not only on fitness but also on luck.
- Neuroscience
Year in review: Gaps in brain nets might store memories
Holes in nets that surround nerve cells may store long-term memories, scientists proposed this year.
- Math
Year in review: New algorithm quickly spots identical networks
In what may be a once-in-a-decade advance, a computer scientist claimed to have devised an algorithm that efficiently solves the notorious graph isomorphism problem.
By Andrew Grant - Health & Medicine
Year in review: Ebola vaccines on the way
After more than a year of furiously developing and testing potential Ebola vaccines, two candidates have risen to the top and may soon be available for use.
By Meghan Rosen - Animals
Forgetful male voles more likely to wander from mate
Poor memory linked to a hormone receptor in the brain could make male prairie voles more promiscuous.
- Planetary Science
Comets-spewing-oxygen club gets new member
Halley’s comet becomes possibly the second comet known to be carting around oxygen buried since the formation of the solar system.