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Magazine
In the Sept. 29 SN: Tomorrow’s burger, inside three big physics experiments, enterovirus outbreak patterns, Jupiter’s wacky magnetism, crop pests like it warm, firefly flashing methods and more.
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News in Brief
Kidney stones grow and dissolve much like geological crystals
09/21/2018 - 07:00 Health, PhysiologyIt took a close look at crystal formation in Yellowstone’s hot springs to understand stones much closer to home. Growth and dissolution patterns found in rocks there mirror what’s going on with stones in our kidneys, says Bruce Fouke, a geobiologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, contradicting the medical dogma that kidney stones don’t dissolve.
Fouke, who usually...
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News
Drug overdose deaths in America are rising exponentially
09/20/2018 - 18:01 Health, Science & SocietyEven as the country’s attention is focused on the ongoing opioid epidemic, a new study shows that the United States has had a wide-ranging drug overdose problem for decades, and it’s growing ever worse.
Analyzing nearly 600,000 accidental drug poisoning deaths from 1979 to 2016 shows that the country has seen an exponential rise in these cases, with the number of deaths doubling...
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September 29, 2018
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News
Cholesterol traces suggest these mysterious fossils were animals, not fungi
09/20/2018 - 14:06 PaleontologyCholesterol clinched it: A group of strange Precambrian fossils are among the oldest known animals in the rock record.
Organic molecules preserved with fossils of the genus Dickinsonia confirm that the creatures were animals rather than fungi or lichen, a study in the Sept. 21 Science says. Researchers led by paleontologist Ilya Bobrovskiy of Australian National University in Canberra...
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Feature
Can science build a better burger?
09/20/2018 - 12:30 Agriculture, Climate, Sustainability, NutritionThis isn’t as extreme as if the federal government had decided to regulate time travel. But it’s almost as surprising. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking the first step toward rules for growing nutritious, delicious, juicy meat in labs, not farms.
The notion of growing, say, just the beef instead of the whole cow has been floating around since at least the 1890s. This sci-fi...
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News
Humans have skeletal stem cells that help bones and cartilage grow
09/20/2018 - 11:08 CellsRepairing bones and cartilage may get easier thanks to newly discovered human skeletal stem cells.
Scientists found the stem cells, which give rise to bones, cartilage and the spongy bone that harbors bone marrow, in fetal bones, adult bones and fat, researchers report online September 20 in Cell. The researchers also reprogrammed adult cells into skeletal stem cells. A ready supply of...
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News
DNA from seized elephant ivory unmasks 3 big trafficking cartels in Africa
09/19/2018 - 14:00 Conservation, Animals, GeneticsPairs of elephant tusks that are separated during smuggling are illuminating the tracks of wildlife crime.
Identifying matching elephant DNA in different shipments of tusks can help scientific sleuths connect the shipments to the same ivory trafficking cartel, a new study finds. That technique has already revealed the presence of three major interconnected cartels that are active in...
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News
High-tech ‘skins’ turn everyday objects into robots
09/19/2018 - 14:00 Materials, Robotics, TechnologyA new type of soft robot gets its power from the skin it’s in.
Robotic skin that bends, stretches and contracts can wrap around inanimate objects like stuffed animals, foam tubes or balloons to create flexible, lightweight robots. Removable, reusable sheets of this artificial skin, described online September 19 in Science Robotics, could also be used to build grippers or wearable devices...
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News
Over-the-hill cells may cause trouble in the aging brain
09/19/2018 - 13:00 NeuroscienceCells past their prime may have a role in dementia. Culling these cells protected the brains of mice that were otherwise destined for brain decline, a new study finds.
Senescent cells, which accumulate with age, are still alive but in a state of suspended animation — they stop doing their jobs and they stop dividing. Getting rid of these cells in the body extends the life spans of mice...
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News
Daily low-dose aspirin is not a panacea for the elderly
09/19/2018 - 09:30 Health, Clinical TrialsA daily dose of aspirin? Not a good idea if you’re a healthy elderly adult.
A trio of papers based on a large-scale clinical trial finds that the drug doesn’t help to stave off heart attacks, strokes, dementia or physical disability. In fact, those in their golden years who took a low dose of aspirin daily were more likely to suffer serious internal bleeding than those who took a placebo...