In the April 14 SN: Killer heat, mass insect migrations, the latest Saturn updates, rethinking the Nobel Prize, tectonics on Venus, the science of mass shootings, ancient tool trends and more.
THE WINNER IS… In mice, norovirus invades tuft cells (the two bright green spots) in the lining of the small intestine (left) and the colon (right). Other cells in the intestines that weren’t infected (blue) are also shown.
C. Wilen et al/Science 2018
HOW SWEET Long before humans inhabited Polynesia, sweet potatoes may have been carried across the ocean from South America to the South Pacific islands by wind, water or maybe even birds.
QueSeraSera/Shutterstock
NEURON NURSERY Roughly the same number of new nerve cells (dots) exist in the hippocampus of people in their 20s (three hippocampi shown, top row) as in people in their 70s (bottom). Blue marks the dentate gyrus, where new nerve cells are born.