Video
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Neuroscience
People can sense Earth’s magnetic field, brain waves suggest
An analysis of brain waves offers new evidence that people subconsciously process information about the planet’s magnetism.
- Life
Some shrimp make plasma with their claws. Now a 3-D printed claw can too
Scientists used a replica of a shrimp claw to re-create the extreme pressures and temperatures that the animals produce underwater.
- Tech
An origami design helps this robot lift delicate and heavy cargo
Fragile items, such as soft fruits, as well as heavier goods are in safe hands with a new robotic gripper.
- Physics
How droplets of oil or water can glow vibrant colors
Viewed from various angles, tiny droplets of water or oil glow different colors under white light.
- Physics
Microwaved grapes make fireballs, and scientists now know why
Electromagnetic waves bounce back and forth inside a grape, creating plasma.
- Astronomy
Merging magnetic blobs fuel the sun’s huge plasma eruptions
Solar eruptions called coronal mass ejections grow from a series of smaller events, observations show.
- Life
Human encroachment threatens chimpanzee culture
Human activity is affecting chimps’ behavioral repertoire, a new study suggests. Creating chimp cultural heritage sites might save unique behaviors.
- Neuroscience
How singing mice belt out duets
A precise timing system in the brain helps musical rodents from the cloud forests of Costa Rica sing to one another.
- Animals
What spiders eating weird stuff tell us about complex Amazon food webs
By documenting rare events of invertebrates eating small vertebrates, scientists are shedding new light on the Amazon rainforest’s intricate ecosystem.
- Animals
Hermit crabs are drawn to the smell of their own dead
A new study finds that the smell of hermit crab flesh attracts other hermit crabs of the same species desperately looking for a larger shell.
- Animals
The world’s largest bee has been rediscovered after 38 years
Researchers rediscovered the world’s largest bee living in the forests of an island of Indonesia.
- Life
Slow sperm may fail at crashing ‘gates’ on their way to an egg
A new study describes how sperm navigate narrow straits in the reproductive tract’s obstacle course to reach an egg.
