Life
Animal sex lives exposed in ‘Nature’s Nether Regions’
What the sex lives of bugs, birds, and beasts tell us about evolution, biodiversity, and ourselves.
Reviews & Previews
Science Visualized
Astronomy
NASA unveils space suit fit for Mars
NASA’s newly revealed Z-2 space suit is the second mock-up of a suit that NASA hopes will eventually protect explorers walking on Mars or drilling into an asteroid.
Notebook
Astronomy
Star-eating star spotted
The first Thorne-Żytkow Object, a strange pair of stars where one engulfs the other, has been discovered.
Features
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Online causes may attract more clicks than commitments
Online awareness campaigns can make people feel they’ve contributed to a good cause, but social scientists say the tangible benefits of such efforts may be small.
More Stories from the July 12, 2014 issue
- Animals
Reef fish get riled when intruders glow red
A male fairy wrasse gets feisty when he can see a rival’s colorful fluorescent patches.
- Chemistry
Bacteria take plants to biofuel in one step
Engineered bacterium singlehandedly dismantles tough switchgrass molecules, making sugars that it ferments to make ethanol.
- Genetics
Blind mole-rats are loaded with anticancer genes
Genes of the long-lived blind mole-rat help explain how the animal evades cancer and why it lost vision.
- Astronomy
Rocky, overweight planet shakes up theories
Kepler-10c is a rocky exoplanet 17 times as massive as Earth, and astronomers are puzzled as to how it formed.
- Animals
Why tree-hugger koalas are cool
Drooping against bark during a heat wave could save koalas from overheating.
- Genetics
Bromine found to be essential to animal life
Fruit flies deprived of the element bromine can’t make normal connective tissue that supports cells and either don’t hatch or die as larvae.
- Neuroscience
Sleep strengthens some synapses
Mice show signs of stronger neuron connections when allowed to sleep after learning a trick.
- Planetary Science
Moon’s origins revealed in rocks’ chemistry
A new chemical measurement of rocks from Earth and from the moon supports the giant impact hypothesis, which explains how the moon formed billions of years ago.
- Astronomy
Galactic collision creates huge particle collider
New images reveal a jet of particles shooting out of a collision among four galaxy clusters.
- Paleontology
Preserved pterosaur eggs hint at reptile’s social life
The first 3-D pterosaur eggs, which were found in China, suggest that the flying reptiles laid eggs together.
- Materials Science
New invisibility cloak hides in the fog
A simple invisibility cloak relies on hazy environments to mask objects.
- Neuroscience
Rats feel regret, experiment finds
When they turn down a good meal for a lesser one, rodents regret their choice, a study suggests.
- Astronomy
Stopping starlight may bring other Earths into focus
Two new telescope concepts compete for NASA’s approval, in hopes of taking the first picture of a life-bearing exoplanet.
- Life
Oxytocin stimulates repair of old mice’s muscles
The naturally produced hormone oxytocin, well known for its role in social bonding, may help heal injured muscles in the elderly.
- Animals
Winter road salting reshapes next summer’s butterflies
Winter road salt treatments boost sodium in roadside plants and alter development for monarch butterflies.
- Health & Medicine
Number of skin moles tied to breast cancer risk
Women who have many moles also have increased disease risk, which may reflect higher estrogen levels.
- Genetics
Chimp and human lineages may have split twice as long ago as thought
New estimates of chimpanzee mutation rates suggest humans and chimps last shared a common ancestor 13 million years ago.
- Life
Dinos straddled line between cold- and warm-blooded
Tyrannosaurus rex and other dinosaurs straddled line between cold- and warm-blood, a new analysis finds.
- Earth
Earth’s deep interior holds vast reservoir of water
Ocean’s worth of water trapped in Earth’s mantle, lab experiments and seismic data suggest.
- Physics
Energy-efficient laser works at room temperature
A room-temperature polariton laser, which requires little electricity, could improve electronics and medical devices.
- Environment
E-cigarettes may inflame lungs as much as cigarettes do
Acute lung impacts of e-cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes are nearly identical, new study finds.
- Neuroscience
Stress hormone kicks brain cells into gear
Norepinephrine, a stress hormone, wakes up cells called astroglia, possibly shifting brain into vigilant state.
- Physics
Supercooled liquid water hits record low
Weird supercooled water well below its freezing point viewed with ultrafast laser.
- Science & Society
Scientists have long had one of the most admired careers
Excerpt from the July 11, 1964, issue of Science News Letter.
- Animals
Ant lions hunt despite sealed lips
Ant lions are ferocious predators, but some of them don’t have a mouth. At least not in the usual sense.
- Psychology
Vocal fry
At the lowest registers of the human voice, a creaky, popping sound known as vocal fry emerges.
- Psychology
Westerners sleep more than people from Eastern nations
Sleep schedules vary from country to country, with social demands like work and study providing the primary incentives to stay up.
- Physics
‘Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field’ is a biography of brilliance
Authors Nancy Forbes and Basil Mahon show how two men’s work came together to change physics.
- Animals
To ID birds, try facial recognition
Improve your backyard birding using facial recognition software.
