Uncategorized
- Genetics
Ebola continues to shift, but grows no more fatal
In the West African epidemic, Ebola evolved and spread quickly, but the virus is not becoming deadlier over time.
- Animals
How mantis shrimps spar
In ritualized combat between deadly mantis shrimp, blows count but don’t kill.
By Susan Milius - Animals
One bold, misinformed spider slows a colony’s ability to learn
Incorrect ideas prove more dangerous in bold velvet spiders than in shyer ones.
By Susan Milius - Earth
Most of Earth’s impact craters await discovery
Hundreds of undiscovered impact craters probably dot Earth’s surface, new research estimates.
- Health & Medicine
Antibiotics can treat appendicitis
Antibiotics can successfully treat the majority of cases of a type of appendicitis, researchers find.
By Meghan Rosen - Astronomy
Pluto at last
Precision matters, whether looking at global temperatures, subatomic particles or the carefully timed approach to a faraway world.
By Eva Emerson - Planetary Science
Water’s origin story, science and sci-fi and more reader feedback
Readers discuss how Earth got its water, chat about a hot spot's violent past and more.
- Animals
Unpredictable egg scramble throws off parasitic parents
Eggs of some species of warbler and weaver birds appear to have individual signatures, which can help distinguish them from the eggs of parasitic cuckoos.
- Health & Medicine
Rehab for psychopaths
Psychopaths often don’t fit movie stereotypes, but they share particular characteristics. New research shows that, contrary to popular thought, cognitive behavioral therapy can help some psychopaths stay out of prison.
By Bruce Bower - Astronomy
Distant galaxy may contain primeval stars
A stockpile of the first generation of stars might be lighting up gas in a galaxy that existed roughly 800 million years after the Big Bang.
- Neuroscience
Homunculus reimagined
A new study pinpoints the part of the brain that controls the neck muscles, tweaking the motor homunculus.
- Animals
Moon jellies muscle their way to recovery
Symmetrization, using rapid muscle movements to repair body symmetry, is the go-to healing mechanism for the limbed stage of moon jellyfish.