Uncategorized
- Neuroscience
Life span lengthens when mice feel less pain
When rodents are missing a sensory protein, their metabolism revs up and they live longer.
- Cosmology
Dustup emerges over gravitational waves discovery
While cosmologists wait for data from Planck satellite, some worry that BICEP2 data actually come from our galaxy.
- Life
In a surprise find, placentas harbor bacteria
Mouth bacteria make their way to the placenta. Some mixes may trigger premature birth.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum cryptography could shed test for hackers
An added protection of a proposed quantum cryptography method makes eavesdropping nearly impossible.
- Life
Genes gives clues to outcome of species interbreeding
Genetics provides clues to why hybrid river fish formed a subspecies but insects formed a new species.
- Climate
Environmental change may spur growth of ‘rock snot’
A controversial new theory suggests alga that forms rock snot isn’t an invader, but a low-key species native to many rivers.
- Climate
Forest fires may speed demise of Greenland’s ice sheet
Black carbon released by burning woodland darkens Greenland’s ice sheet, quickening its melt.
- Animals
Lizards may scale back head bobbing to avoid predators
Brown anoles may scale back mating signals to avoid being eaten.
- Physics
‘The Sound Book’ explores echoes, bad acoustics and more
Acoustic engineer Trevor Cox provides an international tour of aural amazements.
- Particle Physics
Proposed experiment would create matter from light
Photon collider would convert light into electrons and positrons.
- Life
‘The Amoeba in the Room’ uncloaks a hidden realm of tiny life
Mycologist Nicholas Money reveals the secret (and dramatic) lives of amoebas, bacteria, fungi and other often-overlooked microbes in The Amoeba in the Room: Lives of the Microbes.
- Animals
For upside-down sloths, what goes down can’t come up
Upside-down sloths have to hold their organs up and their food down.
