Vol. 206 No. 3
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More Stories from the August 24, 2024 issue

  1. Animals

    Pheromone fingers may help poison frogs mate

    Specialized glands in the fingertips of some males may produce seductive chemical signals.

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  2. Astronomy

    The North Star is much heavier than previously thought

    Polaris is about five times as massive as the sun, new observations reveal. That’s around 50 percent heavier than what an earlier study found.

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  3. Oceans

    In a seafloor surprise, metal-rich chunks may generate deep-sea oxygen

    Instead of sinking from the surface, some deep-sea oxygen may be created by battery-like nodules that split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Getting drugs into the brain is hard. Maybe a parasite can do the job

    Researchers want to harness the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis to ferry drugs, but some question if the risks can be eliminated.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Bird flu viruses may infect mammary glands more commonly than thought

    H5N1 turning up in cow milk was a big hint. The virus circulating in U.S. cows can infect the mammary glands of mice and ferrets, too.

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  6. Animals

    Why a small seabird dares to fly toward cyclones

    Tracking data show that Desertas petrels often veer toward cyclones and follow in their wake, perhaps to catch prey drawn to the surface.

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  7. Animals

    A risk-tolerant immune system may enable house sparrows’ wanderlust

    Birds that are willing to eat seed spiked with chicken poop have higher expression levels of a gut immunity gene, a new study finds.

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  8. Space

    Moonquakes are much more common than thought, Apollo data suggest

    The discovery of 22,000 previously unseen moonquakes, plus a new idea of what causes them, could help us better prepare for trips there.

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  9. Particle Physics

    Dark matter experiments get a first peek at the ‘neutrino fog’ 

    The hint of fog marks a new way to observe neutrinos, but points to the beginning of the end for this type of dark matter detection.

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  10. Physics

    A black hole made from pure light is impossible, thanks to quantum physics 

    A “kugelblitz” is a black hole made of concentrated electromagnetic energy. But it’s not possible to make one, according to new calculations.

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  11. Animals

    Static electricity may help butterflies and moths gather pollen on the fly

    Electrostatically charged lepidopterans could draw pollen out of flowers without touching the blooms, computer simulations suggest.

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  12. Genetics

    Freeze-drying turned a woolly mammoth’s DNA into 3-D ‘chromoglass’

    A new technique for probing the 3-D structure of ancient DNA may help scientists learn how extinct animals functioned, not just what they looked like.

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  13. Artificial Intelligence

    Want to spot a deepfake? The eyes could be a giveaway

    Reflections in the eyes of AI-generated images of people don’t always match up, researchers report.

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  14. Health & Medicine

    HIV prevention may only require two injections per year

    There were no new HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women taking a new PrEP formulation, a twice-yearly shot of the drug lenacapavir.

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  15. Chemistry

    A new element on the periodic table might be within reach 

    Scientists made the known element 116 with a beam of titanium atoms, a technique that could be used to make the undiscovered element 120.

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  16. Earth

    Earthquakes added to Pompeii’s death toll

    Broken bodies found at the archaeological site indicate that earthquakes played a role in the legendary tragedy.

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  17. Chemistry

    Tycho Brahe dabbled in alchemy. Broken glassware is revealing his recipes

    The shards contain nine metals that the famous astronomer may have used, including one not formally identified until 180 years after his death.

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  18. Health & Medicine

    50 years ago, antibiotic resistant bacteria became a problem outside hospitals

    Infections from drug-resistant bacteria have skyrocketed over the last 50 years. Now, new technologies could help doctors save lives.

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