Science NOW
News about new discoveries
Did heavy rains trigger the eruption of the most dangerous U.S. volcano? Scientists are skeptical
Apr. 22, 2020
In May 2018, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano let loose its largest eruption in 200 years, spewing plumes of ash high into the air, and covering hundreds of homes in lava. The eruption terrified local residents, but it gave scientists a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study the volcano’s explosive behavior. Now, a new study claims that extreme rainfall boosted underground pressures and was the “dominant factor” in triggering the eruption.
Body composting promises a sustainable way of death
Feb. 18, 2020
SEATTLE—Death is not environmentally friendly. Cemeteries take up about 500 square kilometers in the United States. Embalming the dead consumes millions of liters of chemicals each year. And cremation takes large amounts of natural gas, producing plentiful greenhouse emissions. So why not take a cue from consumers who recycle their food waste into soil, and do the same to our mortal remains?
How to donate a piece of your brain to science—while you’re still alive
Feb. 15, 2020
SEATTLE—Donating a piece of your brain to biomedical research has never been easier. Scientists have developed a successful live donor program, where patients undergoing brain surgery can contribute a piece of their brain that would otherwise be tossed away. The researchers—led by neuroscientist Ed Lein at the Allen Institute for Brain Science—presented their approach here yesterday at the annual meeting of AAAS, which publishes Science.
The microbes in your gut could predict whether you’re likely to die in the next 15 years
The microbes in our guts have been linked to everything from arthritis to autism. Now, scientists say they can even tell us about our future health. Two new studies find that our “microbiome”—the mix of microbes in our gut—can reveal the presence of many diseases better than our own genes can—and can even anticipate our risk of dying within the next 15 years.
Jan. 22, 2020
This is the oldest scorpion known to science
Scientists have revealed the oldest known scorpion—and arachnid—on Earth: a mysterious species more than 430 million years old uncovered near Waukesha, Wisconsin, about 29 kilometers west of Milwaukee.
Jan. 16, 2020
ScienceInsider
News about science policy and academia
‘We’re losing an entire generation of scientists.’ COVID-19’s economic toll hits Latin America hard
Across Latin America, researchers have raced to contribute their expertise to the worst public health crisis in a century and demonstrate that several decades of investment in research—including the capacity to run large clinical trials—has paid off.
Aug. 12, 2020
A conservation scientist enlists Colombia’s ex-guerrillas in a new cause: preserving their country’s biodiversity
For more than 50 years, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) fought a civil war sparked partly by social inequities from the remote jungles of Colombia. In 2016, FARC and the Colombian government signed a peace agreement. Suddenly, a question loomed: How to reincorporate 14,000 former combatants back into society?
Jul. 8, 2020
Scientists rush to defend Venezuelan colleagues threatened over coronavirus study
Scientific and human rights groups in Venezuela and abroad have rushed to defend the Venezuelan Academy of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences (ACFIMAN) after a high-level government official suggested raids or arrests to punish the academy for “causing alarm” in a report that suggested the country’s coronavirus epidemic is far worse than official numbers show.
Jun. 2, 2020
New helmet and tent aim to protect health care workers from the coronavirus
COVID-19 is a threat to the very people fighting it—nurses, doctors, and other first responders, who are exposed to virus-carrying droplets, or aerosols, from infected patients. Now, a team has developed two devices that could reduce their risks by sucking away infectious aerosols: a helmet to be worn by a patient, and a small tent in which a patient could be enclosed.
May. 15, 2020
Artificial intelligence takes on song-composing duties in Eurovision-inspired contest
A contest inspired by the popular annual Eurovision music competition has drawn entries composed with the help of unusual songwriters—artificial intelligence (AI) programs.
Apr. 24, 2020
Health care workers seek to flatten COVID-19’s ‘second curve’—their rising mental anguish
New surveys of doctors and nurses in China, Italy, and the United States suggest they are experiencing a plethora of mental health problems as COVID-19 continues its spread, including higher rates of stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia.
Apr. 22, 2020
Top neuroscientist leaves Mexican university as former trainees allege sexual harassment
Mar. 17, 2020
Earlier this month, Mexico’s leading university, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), announced that renowned neuroscientist Ranulfo Romo Trujillo would leave his position after being disciplined for an unspecified offense.
According to a 4 March press release from UNAM, Romo Trujillo voluntarily asked to be separated from his job at UNAM’s University City campus in Mexico City. Sources close to the case say he had been temporarily suspended because a female worker made a formal complaint of sexual harassment against him following an incident in January. But current and former UNAM students and staff say that reports of inappropriate behavior by Romo Trujillo had circulated for years before his departure.
Colombian university fires prominent biologist accused of sexual harassment
A prestigious Colombian university has fired a prominent biologist for sexually harassing students and other violations. Yesterday’s decision by the University of Los Andes (Uniandes) in Bogotá is the latest turn in a 15-month controversy that has divided the private school’s biology department, catalyzed protests, and attracted the attention of Colombia’s media.
Feb. 7, 2020
Colombia’s first ever science minister faces calls to resign over fungi-based cancer treatment
In December 2019, when Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez appointed molecular biologist Mabel Gisela Torres Torres to be the first head of the newly created Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, only a few of the nation’s researchers knew who she was.
Feb. 3, 2020
Doomsday Clock is reset to 100 seconds until midnight, closest ever
Jan. 23, 2020
Information warfare and a looming space arms race are among the emerging threats that led a group of scientists today to reset their iconic Doomsday Clock to 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it has been since the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists started the annual exercise in 1947. Midnight on the clock marks the symbolic moment when humankind could annihilate itself.
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Longest deep-sea animal spotted off Australian coast
Apr. 10, 2020
The deep sea is largely unexplored and marine scientists are constantly surprised by the creatures they find roaming the depths in darkness. While exploring the Ningaloo Canyons off the coast of Western Australia with the SuBastian underwater robot, a team of researchers spotted what they believe is the longest organism ever recorded: a giant siphonophore of the genus Apolemia, Newsweek reports.
Atomic bomb dating reveals true age of whale sharks
Apr. 8, 2020
Whale sharks are the largest fish in the ocean—and one of the longest lived, a new study suggests. Sharks lack otoliths—bony structures in the skull that scientists use to estimate the age of most fish—which makes it tricky to estimate their age. So researchers measured the carbon-14 isotope in the cartilaginous vertebrae of two whale sharks and correlated it to the carbon-14 patterns created by Cold War–era bomb detonations, National Geographic reports.
Scientists use lidar to map a forgotten Nazi concentration camp off the coast of France
Apr. 2, 2020
What today looks like an idyllic patch of land in the Channel Islands was, some 75 years ago, a Nazi concentration camp. Now, researchers have thoroughly mapped the nearly forgotten camp of Lager Sylt for the first time, National Geographic reports.
Lab-grown meat is starting to feel like the real deal
Apr. 2, 2020
When it comes to making realistic lab-grown meat, one of the hardest things to replicate is not the taste, but the feel. In a new study, researchers created a spongy 3D scaffold out of soy protein that both scientists and tasters say made a clump of bovine cells feel like the real deal, Inside Science reports.
Whales strand more on days with higher solar activity
It is still a mystery why more than 200 whales washed up on beaches along the west coast of North America last year. But among the possible culprits are sunspots, a new study published Monday in Current Biology suggests.
Feb. 27, 2020
This is the only known animal that doesn’t need oxygen to survive
Breathing is essential for animals to stay alive. Or so we thought. In a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have now identified the first animal that doesn’t use oxygen to breathe: Henneguya salminicola, an 8-millimeter white parasite that infects the flesh of Chinook salmon.
Feb. 26, 2020
Unusual Arctic warming explained by overlooked greenhouse gases
Jan. 21, 2020
The same gases that caused holes in Earth’s ozone layer in the past century are responsible for the rapid warming of the Arctic as well, according to a new study published in Nature. Scientists looked at the effect of these gases in climate simulations between 1955 and 2005. They found that the gases accounted for up to half of the warming and sea-ice loss of the Arctic during that period, Nature reports.
Ancient viruses found in Tibetan glacier
Jan. 17, 2020
In 2015, when researchers embarked on an expedition to retrieve the oldest ice on the planet, they were doing it to look for clues about past climate. But during the journey—to the Guliya ice cap in China’s Tibet (above)—they also found 15,000-year-old viruses—some of them new to science, Vicereports.
Human body temperature has declined steadily over the past 160 years
Jan. 10, 2020
It’s a number everybody knows by heart—our bodies are supposed to be an average 37°C. But that number may be outdated, according to a new analysis of body temperature records going back to 1860. The study suggests the body temperature of the average U.S. man has dropped by 0.6°C since the Civil War, KQED reports.