Latest Headlines

05/18/2023

The oldest scaled-down drawings of actual structures go back 9,000 years

Rock engravings in Jordan and Saudi Arabia may be maps or blueprints of desert kites, massive structures once used to capture animal herds.

Anténor Firmin challenged anthropology's racist roots 150 years ago

In The Equality of the Human Races, Haitian scholar Anténor Firmin showed that science did not support division among the races.

Stimulating spleens with ultrasound hints at a treatment for inflammation

Using an intense kind of ultrasound stimulation against inflammation holds promise but so far has been tested only in rodents and human blood samples.

Can't Get Enough Space?

Scientists may have found an antidote for death cap mushrooms

A dye countered the effects of a mushroom toxin in human cells and mice. If the antidote does the same in people, it has potential to save lives.

Deliberate ignorance is useful in certain circumstances, researchers say

The former East German secret police, the Stasi, spied on people for years. But when given access to the Stasi files, most people didn't want to read them, researchers found.

The first radiation belt outside the solar system has been spotted

Encircling a Jupiter-sized body about 18 light-years from Earth, the radiation belt is 10 million times as bright as the ones around Jupiter.

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A rare mutation helped one man stave off Alzheimer's for decades

The brain of a Colombian man with an inherited form of Alzheimer's may hint at ways to halt or slow the progression of the disease.

'Once Upon a Prime' finds the hidden math in literature

In her new book, mathematician Sarah Hart explains how math shapes all sorts of literary works, from nursery rhymes to Moby-Dick.

The Sonoran Desert toad can alter your mind — it's not the only animal

Their psychedelic and other potentially mind-bending compounds didn't evolve to give people a trip.

There's good and bad news with California's electric vehicle program

The electric vehicle program is reducing carbon dioxide emissions but also shifting the pollution burden to the state's most disadvantaged communities.

50 years ago, cosmic rays may have caused Apollo astronauts to see lights

Apollo astronauts reported seeing flashes of light where there were none. Fifty years later, the flashes still mess with modern astronauts' vision.

In one lake deep under Antarctica's ice, microbes feast on ancient carbon

Microorganisms living in a lake beneath the ice sheet in West Antarctica feed on ocean carbon that was deposited 6,000 years ago.

Why some hammerhead sharks seem to 'hold their breath' during dives

Scalloped hammerhead sharks in Hawaii seem to limit the use of their gills during deep dives to prevent losing heat to their surroundings.

'Thunder beast' fossils show how some mammals might have gotten big

Rhinolike mammals called brontotheres repeatedly evolved into bigger and smaller species, a fossil analysis shows. The bigger ones won out over time.

A reappearing supernova offers a new measure of the universe's expansion

Supernova Refsdal blew up once but burst into view at least five times. The timing of its appearances provides clues to how fast the universe is growing.

Science explains why shouting into the wind seems futile

Sending a sound upwind, against the flow of air, makes the sound louder due to an acoustical effect called convective amplification. Sound sent downwind is quieter.