Spiraling footballs wobble at one of two specific frequencies
In American football, some passes are caught and some are dropped — but all wobble as they fly. Spiraling pigskins tend to visibly wobble at…
Asteroid impacts might have created some of Mars’ sand
Sand on Earth is continuously being created by the slow erosion of rocks. But on Mars, violent asteroid impacts may play an important role in…
Over time, Betelgeuse changed color. Now it’s also lost its rhythm
The star Betelgeuse has always been a diva. Astronomers from antiquity through the present day have watched the red supergiant pulsing at the shoulder of…
Physicists spotted rare W boson trios at the Large Hadron Collider
The letters “www” are typically followed by a “dot” — but not in this experiment. Around 270 WWW events, trios of particles called W bosons,…
COVID-19 infections can rebound for some people. It’s unclear why
For some people, including President Joe Biden and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci, the relief of vanishing COVID-19 symptoms and…
50 years ago, scientists hoped freezing donor organs would boost transplants
The icy world of organ freezing – Science News, August 19, 1972 If whole organs could be frozen and stored … surgeons would be able…
These researchers are unlocking Renaissance beauty secrets
Art historian Erin Griffey is a bit of a beauty maven. “I’m one of those people who reads the backs of beauty products,” she says.…
Why humans have more voice control than any other primates
A crying baby, a screaming adult, a teenager whose voice cracks — people could have sounded this shrill all the time, a new study suggests,…
The Arctic is warming even faster than scientists realized
The Arctic is heating up at a breakneck speed compared with the rest of Earth. And new analyses show that the region is warming even…
Multiple sclerosis has a common viral culprit, opening doors to new approaches
As Tanina Agosto went through her normal morning routine in July 2007, she realized something was wrong. The 29-year-old couldn’t control her left side, even…
Zoo gorillas use a weird new call that sounds like a sneezy cough
Sukari the gorilla can grunt. She can hum. She can grumble. Now, scientists report, the gorilla’s got a new way to express herself. Sukari can…
Sea sponges launch slow-motion snot rockets to clean their pores
The next time you spot a sea sponge, say “gesundheit!” Some sponges regularly “sneeze” to clear debris from their porous bodies. As filter feeders, sponges…
How balloons could one day detect quakes on Venus
The balloon was floating over the Pacific Ocean when the first sound waves hit. For 11 seconds, a tiny device dangling beneath the large, transparent…
Relocated beavers helped mitigate some effects of climate change
In the upper reaches of the Skykomish River in Washington state, a pioneering team of civil engineers is keeping things cool. Relocated beavers boosted water…
Scientists mapped dark matter around galaxies in the early universe
Scientists have mapped out the dark matter around some of the earliest, most distant galaxies yet. The 1.5 million galaxies appear as they were 12…
Mini-Neptunes may become super-Earths as the exoplanets lose their atmospheres
Mini-Neptunes and super-Earths may have a lot more in common than just being superlatives. Four gaseous exoplanets, each a bit smaller than Neptune, seem to…
How Mars rovers have evolved in 25 years of exploring the Red Planet
Few things are harder than hurling a robot into space — and sticking the landing. On the morning of July 4, 1997, mission controllers at…
The Windchime experiment could use gravity to hunt for dark matter ‘wind’
The secret to directly detecting dark matter might be blowin’ in the wind. The mysterious substance continues to elude scientists even though it outweighs visible…
Scientists turned dead spiders into robots
Scientists have literally reanimated dead spiders to do their bidding. In a new field dubbed “necrobotics,” researchers converted the corpses of wolf spiders into grippers…
A shot of immune proteins may protect against malaria for months
A single shot that could provide months-long protection against malaria has proven effective and safe in a small, early clinical trial of adults. The shot,…
A new James Webb telescope image reveals a galactic collision’s aftermath
It’s not easy being ringed. A newly released image from the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, shows the Cartwheel Galaxy still reeling from a…
An hour after pigs’ deaths, an artificial system restored cellular life
Call it cellular life support for dead pigs. A complex web of pumps, sensors and artificial fluid can move oxygen, nutrients and drugs into pigs’…
Spinal stimulation gives some people with paralysis more freedom
By his count, Michel Roccati is on his third life, at least. In the first, he was a fit young man riding his motorcycle around…
Two black holes merged despite being born far apart in space
Signals buried deep in data from gravitational wave observatories imply a collision of two black holes that were clearly born in different places. Almost all…
Friendships with rich people may help lift children out of poverty
Relationships can have a profound influence on a life, from the schools that people attend to the jobs they land. But teasing out how those…
Whale sharks may be the world’s largest omnivores
As Mark Meekan bobbed among swells in the Indian Ocean, he spotted a giant shadowy figure moving through the water. The tropical fish biologist dove…
Tiny amoebas move faster when carrying cargo than without
Microbes enlisted to carry tiny loads travel faster with cargo attached than on their own. That’s the surprising finding of a study of the carrying…
I think I have long COVID. What does that mean?
In the year before the omicron variant began to spread in the United States, an estimated one-third of 18- to 45-year-olds had gotten sick with…
Electrical bacteria may help clean oil spills and curb methane emissions
The small motorboat anchors in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. Shrieks of wintering birds assault the vessel’s five crew members, all clad in bright…
Astronauts might be able to use asteroid soil to grow crops
Astronauts might one day dine on salad grown in asteroid soil. Romaine lettuce, chili pepper and pink radish plants all grew in mixtures of peat…
This stick-on ultrasound patch could let you watch your own heart beat
Picture a smartwatch that doesn’t just show your heart rate, but a real-time image of your heart as it beats in your chest. Researchers may…
Like bees of the sea, crustaceans ‘pollinate’ seaweed
When it comes to reproduction, one type of red algae gets by with a little help from its friends: small sea crustaceans that transport sex…
Amateur astronomers’ images of a rare double aurora may unlock its secrets
What happens when two different kinds of auroras get together? One spills the other’s secrets. Amateur astronomers have captured a strange combination of red and…
‘Murder hornets’ have a new common name: Northern giant hornet
What’s been called a “murder hornet” or “Asian giant hornet” now has a somewhat official, maybe kinder, name. Meet the northern giant hornet. That’s what…
Famine and disease may have driven ancient Europeans’ lactose tolerance
Ancient Europeans may have evolved an ability to digest milk thanks to periodic famines and disease outbreaks. Europeans avidly tapped into milk drinking starting around…
Quantum entanglement makes quantum communication even more secure
Stealthy communication just got more secure, thanks to quantum entanglement. Quantum physics provides a way to share secret information that’s mathematically proven to be safe…
Humans may not be able to handle as much heat as scientists thought
More than 2,000 people dead from extreme heat and wildfires raging in Portugal and Spain. High temperature records shattered from England to Japan. Overnights that…
Moths pollinate clover flowers at night, after bees have gone home
Bees aren’t the only insects pollinating red clover. Moths do about a third of the flower visits after dark, new research suggests. The findings, detailed…
How to make jet fuel from sunlight, air and water vapor
Jet fuel can now be siphoned from the air. Or at least that’s the case in Móstoles, Spain, where researchers demonstrated that an outdoor system…
Here’s the quickest way to grill burgers, according to math
If you have a hankering for a hamburger, math may have some timesaving cooking tips for you. Increasing the number of times a burger is…
Here’s what to do when someone at home has COVID-19
I’m one of 40 percent or fewer of Americans who have managed to avoid getting COVID-19. I have been avoiding it like a potentially life-threatening…
Ancient DNA links an East Asian Homo sapiens woman to early Americans
A previously undetected Homo sapiens population inhabited what’s now southwestern China around 14,000 years ago and contributed to the ancestry of ancient Americans. This far-ranging…
The world is ‘losing the window’ to contain monkeypox, experts warn
It may soon be too late to end the global monkeypox epidemic. “We are losing the window to be able to contain this outbreak,” Boghuma…
A new dark matter experiment quashed earlier hints of new particles
Potential hints of weird new particles in a dark matter detector have evaporated with new data. Following up on a beguiling result from its predecessor…
The heaviest neutron star on record is 2.35 times the mass of the sun
A fast-spinning neutron star south of the constellation Leo is the most massive of its kind seen so far, according to new observations. The record-setting…
Herminia Pasantes discovered how taurine helps brain cells regulate their size
When Herminia Pasantes Ordóñez was about 14 years old, in 1950, she heard her mother tell her father that she would never find a husband.…
How James Webb Space Telescope data have already revealed surprises
Massimo Pascale wasn’t planning to study the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. But as soon as he saw the cluster glittering in the first image from…
50 years ago, the dinosaurs’ demise was still a mystery
What did in the dinosaurs: Warm blood or soft eggs? — Science News, July 22, 1972 Dinosaurs might have been endothermic, or warm-blooded…. The combination…
Mammal ancestors’ shrinking inner ears may reveal when warm-bloodedness arose
Hot or not? Peeking inside an animal’s ear — even a fossilized one — may tell you whether it was warm- or cold-blooded. Using a…
A new technology uses human teardrops to spot disease
Human tears could carry a flood of useful information. With just a few drops, a new technique can spot eye disease and even glimpse signs…