Science Ticker
A roundup of research and breaking news
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Computing
AI system learns like a human, stores info like a computer
A new artificial neural network hooked up to extra memory can learn to solve complex problems.
- Animals
Hot and spicy pain signals get blocked in naked mole-rats
Naked mole-rats have a protein that interrupts pain signal.
- Animals
African elephants walk on their tippy-toes
Pressure plates reveal how African elephants load their feet when they walk, providing clues to pachyderm podiatry problems.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s moon Dione might harbor an underground ocean
Saturn’s moon Dione might have an underground ocean, like several other moons in the solar system.
- Chemistry
Minuscule machines earn trio 2016 chemistry Nobel
The creators of mini machines including chains, axles and motors have earned the 2016 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
- Physics
Trio wins physics Nobel for math underlying exotic states of matter
The 2016 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded for theoretical discoveries of topological phases of matter.
- Health & Medicine
Japanese scientist wins Nobel for revealing secrets of cellular recycling
Discovering how cells act as mini recycling plants wins the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi.
- Planetary Science
Rosetta spacecraft lands on comet, ends mission
The Rosetta mission comes to an end as spacecraft touches down on surface of comet 67P/ Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
- Health & Medicine
Zika virus infects cells that make bone, muscle in lab tests
Zika virus infects embryonic cranial cells in lab-grown minibrains, potentially altering face and skull shape and brain development, and maybe even contributing to microcephaly.
- Astronomy
Solar system sits within a major spiral arm of the Milky Way
The solar system appears to live in one of the major spiral arms of the Milky Way, not in an offshoot as previously thought.
- Genetics
First ‘three-parent baby’ born from nuclear transfer
The first human baby produced through spindle nuclear transfer was born in April, New Scientist reports.
- Health & Medicine
Measles has been eliminated in the Americas, WHO says
Thanks to wide-spread vaccination against the viral disease, measles has officially been declared eliminated from the Americas.
