Uncategorized
- Fossils
Parasites wormed their way into dino’s gut
Tiny burrows crisscross the stomach of a 77-million-year-old dinosaur fossil. These may be tracks left behind by slimy parasitic worms.
- Physics
Why the knuckleball takes such a knucklehead path
They used to say it was how the seams interacted with the air. The new explanation is different. Scientists say its due to a ”drag crisis.”
- Earth
That’s no moon: Earth’s tiny tagalong
A newly discovered asteroid appears to be orbiting Earth, like a new mini-moon. In fact, it’s really orbiting the sun.
- Computing
Moral dilemma could limit appeal of driverless cars
Driverless cars will have to be programmed to decide who to save in emergencies — passengers or pedestrians. Many people aren’t yet sure they are ready to choose cars that make the most moral decision.
- Animals
Current coral bleaching event is the longest known
Heat stress has led to the longest coral bleaching event on record. Scientists now worry that global warming may make such prolonged crises more frequent.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists Say: Poisonous
A poison-arrow frog is poisonous, but a rattlesnake is not. What’s the difference? It’s how the poison is delivered.
- Brain
Hormone affects how teens’ brains control emotions
Using scans of brain activity, scientists show that surging hormones drive where emotions get processed in a teen’s brain.
- Planets
By Jove! Juno-cam sends back first postcard
After a long and quiet trek through space, the Juno spacecraft showed it weathered the trip fine and is ready to get on with its business: probing what makes Jupiter tick.
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Teacher invites Twitter into the classroom
Twitter can connect students with scientists in real time. But engaging tweens in an open social network also requires caution, one teacher warns.
- Earth
Helium discovery blows away shortage worries
Fears that the world may soon run out of helium have been set aside for now by the finding of a huge reservoir of the gas in East Africa.
- Health & Medicine
Strict gun laws ended mass shootings in Australia
Australia enacted tough gun laws in 1996, which cut gun exposure — especially to semiautomatic weapons. Since then, new data show, that nation has experienced zero mass shootings.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Plastisphere
As plastic floats in the ocean, it can acquire its own colony of microbes and algae. We call this ecosystem the plastisphere.
