Uncategorized
- Neuroscience
Ha! The Science of When We Laugh and Why
Scott Weems, a neuroscientist, takes readers on a wide-ranging tour that explains what humor is and why readers should care.
By Sid Perkins - Astronomy
This winter warrior made the gravitational waves discovery possible
Engineer Steffen Richter played an important role in the recent gravitational waves discovery, wintering at the Amundsen-Scott research station at the South Pole and making daily treks to keep the BICEP2 telescope running.
By Andrew Grant - Materials Science
Light filter lets rays through from only one direction
Angle-sensitive light filter could improve photography, telescopes and solar energy harvesting.
By Andrew Grant - Neuroscience
Ten thousand neurons linked to behaviors in fly
By studying the wiggles of 37,780 fly larvae, scientists link specific neurons to 29 distinct behaviors.
- Humans
Childhood program improves health 30 years later
A preschool intervention for kids from poor families benefits their health as adults, especially among men.
By Bruce Bower - Life
First chromosome made synthetically from yeast
Work with yeast marks the first time scientists have synthesized a chromosome from organisms with complex cells and represents a major step toward lab-created eukaryotic life.
- Psychology
Grief takes its toll
A person’s risk of heart attack or stroke is doubled in the month following the death of a spouse or partner.
- Health & Medicine
Diet fix eases Huntington’s symptoms in mice
Supplement improves health of rodents with mutation that causes neurodegeneration like that seen in Huntington’s disease.
- Life
With Taxol, chromosomes divide and get conquered
New mechanism discovered for how the cancer drug Taxol works.
- Planetary Science
Icy rings found around tiny space rock
Astronomers discover an icy ring around the planetoid Chariklo, held in place by unseen moons.
- Paleontology
Ancient oceans’ top predator was gentle filter feeder
New fossils suggest that a distant relative of lobsters used bristled limbs to net its prey, not spike it.
- Planetary Science
Icy planetoid found lurking at edge of solar system
Astronomers discovered an icy planetoid orbiting beyond the edge of the Kuiper belt.