In the April 5 SN: Detecting cosmic inflation, haggling over the Hubble constant, reviving an ancient virus and debating the merits of screening student athletes for sudden cardiac death.
April 5, 2014
AP (left); BICEP2 Collaboration (right)
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Magazine
In the June 23 SN: Emmy Noether gets her due, the 411 on ancestry testing, bonobo birthing buddies, a mysterious neutrino surplus, the oldest known lizard fossil, genetic genealogy in police work, Pluto’s dunes and more.
- Feature
Cosmic question mark
Two ways of measuring the universe’s expansion rate disagree by about 10 percent. One of the methods may be flawed. Or it could be that a hitherto unobserved phenomenon is at work. - Feature
Sudden death
Cardiologists disagree on whether electrocardiograms should be used to screen student athletes for a rare heart condition that can cause them to die suddenly and without warning. - News
Gravitational waves unmask universe just after Big Bang
For the first time, researchers have seen traces of superfast cosmic expansion and gravity waves. - Science Visualized
Evolution of river systems
A river’s erosion downward and across a landscape is based on a variety of factors, including terrain steepness and the arrangement of tributaries. - News
Giant zombie virus pulled from permafrost
After lying dormant in Siberian permafrost for 30,000 years, the largest virus ever discovered is just as deadly as it was when mammoths roamed the Earth. - News in Brief
Chimps catch people’s yawns in sign of flexible empathy
Chimpanzees may show humanlike empathy, as evidenced by their contagious yawning. - News
Laser tweezers manipulate objects just 50 nanometers wide
Technique could allow scientists to move proteins, viruses and nanomaterials. - News in Brief
Human ancestors at West Asian site deemed two species
Researchers see two species instead of one at oldest known Homo site outside Africa. - News
Rivalry helps fruit flies maintain brainpower
In lab tests, males dim mentally after generations without competitors. - Science Stats
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.