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Seeing humans as superpredators
08/20/2015 - 14:00 Animals, Conservation, EcologyTo get a glimpse of a superpredator, just look in the mirror. Comparing hunting habits of mammals and fishes reveals humans as Earth’s most dangerous, oddball predator — one that targets adult prey in large numbers, a practice that can push populations into decline.
Humans’ main prey are reproductive adults, the...
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News
Bones revive a 7,000-year-old massacre
08/17/2015 - 15:00 Anthropology, ArchaeologyCentral Europe’s first farmers cultivated not just crops but also massacres, with some villages nearly wiping out neighboring settlements, researchers say.
Evidence of this ancient warfare appears on human bones found scattered in a ditch exposed by German road workers in 2006, says a team led by anthropologist Christian...
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News
Bacteria in flowers may boost honeybees’ healthy gut microbes
08/16/2015 - 07:00 Microbes, Animals, ToxicologyHoneybees were into probiotics way before they were cool, a new study suggests.
The hipster insects serve up beneficial bacteria that may help baby bees develop a healthy blend of gut microbes, researchers report online August 7 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Without those thriving gut...
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News
Biologists aflutter over just where monarchs are declining
08/11/2015 - 06:00 Animals, ConservationA fuss over trends in monarch butterfly populations has flared up with a flurry of new research papers, all based on records from volunteer butterfly watchers.
There’s no dispute that numbers of monarch butterflies are dwindling at winter refuges in central Mexico (SN: 4/23/11, p. 18). But...
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News
Young black holes evade detection
08/07/2015 - 16:26 AstronomyHONOLULU — Perhaps most supermassive black holes — dark giants in the centers of galaxies — are just shy when they’re young.
“We have this weird problem, where on the one hand the universe makes really supermassive black holes very shortly after the Big Bang,” says Kevin Schawinski, an astrophysicist at ETH Zürich in Switzerland. “But when we look at more typical galaxies, we find no...
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Science Ticker
Brain scans hint at reasons for stress-eating
08/07/2015 - 13:55 NeuroscienceAsk anyone who has succumbed to the office doughnut right after a tense meeting: Stress eating is real. Moderate stress crumples diet-related willpower by changing the behavior of the brain, a small study suggests.
Scientists stressed out 29 young men by making them stick one hand in ice water for three minutes while a...
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50 Years Ago
Claim of memory transfer made 50 years ago
08/06/2015 - 15:00 Neuroscience
Memory Transfer Seen — Experiments with rats, showing how chemicals from one rat brain influence the memory of an untrained animal, indicate that tinkering with the brain of humans is also possible.In the rat tests, brain material from an animal trained to...
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News
Plants’ ‘don’t-eat-me’ chemicals no problem for earthworms
08/05/2015 - 10:31 Chemistry, Physiology, AnimalsFor not-so-picky eaters, it’s best to have a tough tummy — take it from earthworms.
The wriggling soil dwellers tote chemicals in their guts to counteract hazardous ingredients in plant chow, researchers report online August 4 in Nature Communications. The finding explains how earthworms...
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Science Ticker
Gastric bypass surgery changes gut microbes
08/05/2015 - 08:00 Microbiology, BiomedicineWeight loss surgery causes bacteria in the intestines to extract fewer calories from food, a new study suggests.
Changes to the gut microbiome last at least nine years after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass or gastric banding surgery, researchers...
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Science Ticker
Spicy food associated with longevity
08/04/2015 - 18:30 HealthSpicy food in the diet seems to contribute to longevity, a study of thousands of people in a Chinese registry finds.
Men who ate spicy food at least once a week were 10 percent less likely to die during the seven-year study period than were those with a more bland diet. Women had a mortality decrease of 12 to 22 percent during the study period with regular spicy food consumption, and...