Uncategorized
- Neuroscience
Rats can navigate mazes, even when blind
Blind rats can learn to navigate with a compass and microchip prosthetic wired into their brains. Similar devices may one day help humans have super senses.
- Animals
Fossilized seashells’ true colors revealed
To the naked eye, fossilized seashells lack the colorful patterns of their living counterparts. But ultraviolet light can reveal some of their unique hues.
- Health & Medicine
A more accurate prenatal test to predict Down syndrome
A test to detect genetic problems such as Down syndrome examines a baby’s DNA in the mother’s blood and may limit the need for more invasive screening.
- Anthropology
Kennewick Man’s bones reveal his diet
Pacific Northwest man who lived 9,000 years ago ate from an almost entirely seafood menu, a new analysis finds.
- Health & Medicine
Injured baby hearts may be coaxed to regenerate
Shots of a growth factor protein reduce cell death in infant mice with heart damage.
- Health & Medicine
Older moms may have options to reduce newborns’ risks
Although babies born to older mothers face a higher danger of congenital heart defects, exercising moms may offset this added risk, a study in mice shows.
- Anthropology
‘Little Foot’ pushes back age of earliest South African hominids
Study suggests Lucy’s species had a South African foil nearly 3.7 million years ago.
- Earth
Plate loss gave chain of Pacific islands and seamounts a bend
The sinking Izanagi tectonic plate may have rerouted the mantle flow beneath the Pacific, halting the Hawaiian hot spot.
- Anthropology
Ancient hominids moved into Greece about 206,000 years ago
New analysis puts people at a contested Greek site about 206,000 years ago.
- Environment
Tampons: Not just for feminine hygiene
Tampons soaked in polluted water glow under UV light, revealing detergent-filled wastewater in rivers.
- Humans
Egg-meet-sperm moments are equal opportunities for girls and boys
Despite previous claims, equal numbers of male and female embryos are conceived, new data suggest.
- Environment
Fracking chemicals can alter mouse development
Hormone-disrupting chemicals used in fracking fluid cause developmental changes in mice, new experiments show.
