Is the Alpha Wolf Idea a Myth?

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March 03, 2023

Animals Is the Alpha Wolf Idea a Myth? The idea that wolf packs are led by a merciless dictator, or alpha wolf, comes from old studies of captive wolves. In the wild, wolf packs are simply families By Stephanie Pappas

Psychology Many Differences between Liberals and Conservatives May Boil Down to One Belief Conservatives tend to believe that strict divisions are an inherent part of life. Liberals do not By Jer Clifton

Neurology Your Brain Could Be Controlling How Sick You Get--And How You Recover Scientists are deciphering how the brain choreographs immune responses, hoping to find treatments for a range of diseases By Diana Kwon,Nature magazine

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Neurology Does Not Being Able to Picture Something in Your Mind Affect Your Creativity? Researchers who study aphantasia, or the inability to visualize something in your “mind’s eye,” are starting to get a sense of how to accurately measure the condition and what it may mean for those who have it. By Stefano Montali | 05:55

Climate Change Scientists Are Trying to Pull Carbon Out of the Ocean to Combat Climate Change Instead of sucking planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, some scientists are looking to capture it from the oceans By John Fialka,E&E News

Evolution Evolution Turns These Knobs to Make a Hummingbird Hyperquick and a Cavefish Sluggishly Slow By tuning the enzymes that control the breakdown or storage of sugars, hummingbirds and cavefish adapt their metabolism to meet the demands of the vastly different environments in which they live By Viviane Callier

Aerospace Sorry, UFO Hunters--You Might Just Be Looking at a Spy Balloon From space aliens to foreign surveillance, we spoke to experts to find out what’s really going on with the balloon brouhaha. By Sophie Bushwick,Tulika Bose | 07:34

Epidemiology Vaccine Makers Are Preparing for Bird Flu Although most experts say bird flu is not an immediate threat to humans, efforts are underway to produce vaccines for H5N1 or another potential pandemic virus By Hannah Docter-Loeb

Animals Sharpshooter Insects Use 'Superpropulsion' to Catapult Their Pee Sharpshooter insects use a physics phenomenon called superpropulsion to efficiently fling away droplets of pee at extremely high speeds By Jack Tamisiea

Public Health The U.S. Needs a Formal Reckoning on the COVID Pandemic After Pearl Harbor, 9/11 and other major tragedies, the U.S. has examined itself to see how to prevent the next catastrophe. We need to do the same for the COVID pandemic By The Editors

Food Why Is It So Hard to Make Vegan Fish? Futuristic food science technology could finally bring plant-based salmon filets and tuna steaks to the table By Joanna Thompson

Engineering New Color-Changing Coating Could Both Heat and Cool Buildings A thin film can switch from releasing heat to trapping it, and wrapping the coating around buildings could make them more energy-efficient By Allison Parshall

BRING SCIENCE HOME Battling Gas Bubbles Bubbling up: Can you stop gas bubbles from forming--with chemistry?  Credit: George Retseck Has your stomach ever ached so bad you felt as if it was blown up like a balloon—maybe after the big Thanksgiving meal? You may have had a large amount of gas trapped in your stomach and intestines. But where does the gas come from that makes you feel so uncomfortable? And how does it disappear again? In this activity you will blow some bubbles to investigate how a specific compound can help battle those pockets of air.

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