Posts

By Zoë Corbyn of Nature magazineTwo vast areas of the north Pacific Ocean, one off the west coast of the U.S. and the other between Hawaii and Alaska, have been revealed as marine counterparts of East Africa’s Serengeti plain. Teeming with life, these oceanic “hotspots” provide major migration corridors for large marine predators ranging from tuna to whales.The discovery comes from a huge data set that synthesizes and compares the seasonal migration patterns of 23 species of predators....

In a flash, an octopus can make like ragged-edged seaweed or coral by changing the color and texture of its skin, thus becoming nearly invisible in its environment. And in the future, robots may be able to pull off this seemingly magical camouflage trick as well. Researchers have created a synthetic form of cephalopod skin that can transform from a flat, 2D surface to a three-dimensional one with bumps and pits, they report today (Oct....

One of the Universe’s most common particles has left physicists completely stumped. The proton, a fundamental constituent of the atomic nucleus, seems to be smaller than thought. And despite three years of careful analysis and reanalysis of numerous experiments, nobody can figure out why. An experiment published today in Science only deepens the mystery, says Ingo Sick, a physicist at the University of Basel in Switzerland. “Many people have tried, but none has been successful at elucidating the discrepancy....

In 2012, a few days after Katie Rich gave birth to her third child, she started experiencing sharp pains under her ribs. When she brought it up at her postpartum checkup, her doctor thought it might be Rich’s gallbladder. Instead a sonogram revealed a spot the size of a dollar bill on her liver. It might be a bruise, her doctor told her. “You are 33 years old. Do not worry about this,” she remembers him saying....

Every country worldwide needs an early warning system for climate-related disasters within five years. That statement by the United Nations on Tuesday coincided with a U.N. report showing that planet-warming emissions continue to rise, temperature records are being smashed, and pledges by world leaders to lower carbon output are failing to keep the world from approaching dangerous tipping points. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called the report a “shameful reminder” that the world is neglecting the investment needed to respond to historic disasters like heat waves, droughts and floods....

One of the most challenging aspects of Sarah Bly’s work is helping women cope with infertility. “It’s not only a mental desire you have around creating a life, but a very deeply physical, primal and biological urge, and these women are dealing with this on all of those levels,” said Bly, a women’s health counselor and fertility awareness educator in Oregon. Bly, who runs a private practice in Ashland, home of Oregon’s famous Shakespeare festival, urges women to listen to their bodies in pursuing health and pregnancy....

By Laila KearneySAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Firefighters battling a blaze that has destroyed 22 homes along California’s scenic Big Sur coastline were counting on lower temperatures and more favorable wind conditions to help them suppress the flames, officials said on Wednesday.The Pfeifer Fire blackened some 769 acres and was 20 percent contained by Wednesday morning, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Lynn Olson said, adding that crews expect to contain it fully by late Friday....

Neuroscientists have identified an area of the brain that might give the human mind its unique abilities, including language. The area lit up in human, but not monkey, brains when they were presented with different types of abstract information. The idea that integrating abstract information drives many of the human brain’s unique abilities has been around for decades. But a paper published in Current Biology, which directly compares activity in human and macaque monkey brains as they listen to simple auditory patterns, provides the first physical evidence that a specific area for such integration may exist in humans....

Editor’s Note (12/21/21): This article is being showcased in a special collection about equity in health care that was made possible by the support of Takeda Pharmaceuticals. The article was published independently and without sponsorship. As people in the U.S. and other wealthy countries begin lining up for COVID vaccine booster shots, most of those in the rest of the world are still waiting for their first dose. In many African nations, for example, less than 2 percent of the population—including health care workers and the elderly—has received a single COVID vaccination....

One pioneering team hopes to use carbon dioxide to make a stronger form of cement. Another wants to use carbon to make bioplastic. Still another is planning to transform CO2 into solid carbonates that can be used as building materials. The XPRIZE Foundation unveiled 10 teams yesterday as finalists in its $20 million contest to find a solution to carbon emissions. “These teams are showing us amazing examples of carbon conversion and literally reimagining carbon....

By Andrew M. Seaman (Reuters Health) - Children exposed to a common type of antidepressant in the womb may be at an increased risk of complications soon after birth and years later, according to two new studies. One study suggests newborns are more likely to need intensive care after birth if their mothers take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy. A second study finds those same children may be at an increased risk for speech and language disorders years later....

Even as the Cassini spacecraft reports back from up close to Saturn, astronomers continue to learn about the ringed planet from telescopes on Earth. New results from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, for example, have revealed a hot spot near Saturn’s south pole–the first warm polar cap discovered in the solar system. Sunlight has bathed Saturn’s southern hemisphere for the past 15 years without a break, so it’s no surprise that the environs are slightly warm....

Scientists have long known that once we nod off, certain memories grow stronger. One recent theory suggests that forgetting, too, is an essential function of sleep [see “Sleep’s Secret Repairs,” by Jason Castro; Scientific American Mind, May/June 2012]. Researchers now suspect that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may emerge from flaws in sleep’s forgetting process. Two studies presented at the 2012 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans indicate that sleep might offer a window of opportunity for weakening memories and providing relief from lingering reminders of trauma....

By Heidi Ledford For more than 50 years, the autoimmune disease lupus has confounded drug developers. But a new therapy finally broke through that barrier yesterday when the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the approval of Benlysta (belimumab) for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus.The greatly anticipated move heralded a step forward not only for belimumab’s developers, but also for the many other experimental lupus therapies hot on the trail....

A Brazilian baby will celebrate her first birthday later this month, less than two years after her mother—unable to carry a pregnancy because she lacked a uterus—underwent a transplant from a deceased donor. The mother is the first in the world to give birth after such a transplant, a feat doctors were not sure would ever be possible. The baby girl is healthy and developing normally, according to Dani Ejzenberg, the doctor at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil who led the transplant team....

Dear EarthTalk: I heard of a practice called cyanide fishing, which is used mostly to collect aquarium specimens, but I understand it is also used to catch fish we eat. Isn’t this very unhealthy?—Phil Seymour, Albany, N.Y. Cyanide fishing, whereby divers crush cyanide tablets into plastic squirt bottles of sea water and puff the solution to stun and capture live coral reef fish, is widely practiced throughout Southeast Asia despite being illegal in most countries of the region....

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. For many Americans, pumpkins mean that fall is here. In anticipation, coffee shops, restaurants and grocery stores start their pumpkin flavor promotions in late August, a month before autumn officially begins. And shoppers start buying fresh decorative winter produce, such as pumpkins and turban squash, in the hot, sultry days of late summer. But these fruits—yes, botanically, pumpkins and squash are fruits—don’t last forever....

Key concepts Physics Adhesion Cohesion Surface tension Gravity Introduction How do trees suck water all the way up to their leaves? How do paper towels soak up a spill? Are these things related? Try this project to learn about capillary action, and repeat a classic demonstration from over 100 years ago! Background Have you ever looked closely at water in a drinking glass? You might notice the surface of the water is not completely flat, rather it forms a small lip, called a meniscus, that curls up around the edge of the glass....

Could neuroscience hold the key to breaking down psychological barriers between groups in conflict? In this month’s issue of Scientific American, contributor Gareth Cook interviews Rebecca Saxe, an associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, about her work applying “theory of mind” to the discord between Palestinians and Israelis as well as conflicts between Arizonans who are Mexican immigrants and those who are U.S. citizens. Theory of mind is a concept used to describe the capacity to deduce what someone else is thinking or feeling....

Key concepts Biology Vision Pupil Light Color Introduction Have you ever considered taking a nighttime nature walk? Would you wait until there is a full moon so you could benefit from sunlight reflected from the moon—or would you rather take a flashlight? Do you think trees would look black, green or gray in the dark? Try this activity to examine your night vision and prepare for your next nighttime adventure! Background Sight begins when light enters the eye....