Male mosquitoes can be almost as bloodthirsty as females under certain conditions, a new study suggests. This overturns the notion that only female mosquitoes bite, drink blood and spread disease while males drink nectar. The finding hints that men are not completely harmless and may play a small role in the spread of the disease. … Read more
As dust from the Sahara blows thousands of kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean, it becomes progressively more nutritious for marine microbes, a new study suggests. Chemical reactions in the atmosphere grind iron minerals into dust, making them more soluble in water and creating an essential nutrient source for iron-starved seas, researchers report Sept. 20. Frontiers … Read more
Stand back, ordinary ocean-dwelling, oxygen-releasing organisms: There’s a fat, green new mutant in town. And the mighty UTEX 3222 — dubbed “Chonkus” by the researchers who found it — may have the right combination of traits to help with some of humanity’s most pressing problems. Chonkus, in particular, could help fight climate change, report microbiologist … Read more
Synthetic food colors—and their links to neurobehavioral issues in children—are having a moment. Last month, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law the California School Food Safety Act, banning the state’s public schools from serving or selling foods containing six synthetic food dyes starting in 2028. Earlier this month in Michigan, protests erupted outside the … Read more
Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting questions from readers about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? The rapid intensification of both storms was fueled by unusually warm Gulf water. Developing tropical storms can absorb heat … Read more
Astronomers have finally found an asteroid that keeps pace with Saturn in its orbit around the sun. Such objects, called Trojan asteroids, are already known for the other three giant planets. “Saturn was kind of the odd man out, if I can call it that, because even though it’s the second most massive planet in … Read more
As artificial intelligence explodes in popularity, two of its pioneers have received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics. The award goes to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton “for fundamental discoveries and inventions enabling machine learning with artificial neural networks,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm announced on Oct. 8. These computational tools, which … Read more
Displacement is in the nature of a river. But when a river breaks from its channel and carves a new path across the landscape, devastating floods can descend on communities with little or no warning. For decades, researchers have struggled to explain exactly how river channels prepare for such sudden diversions or avulsions. A study … Read more
Planetary astronomer Bonnie Buratti remembers exactly where she was the first time she heard that Jupiter’s icy moon Europa might host life. It was the 1980s, and Buratti was a graduate student at Cornell University studying images of the planet’s moons taken during the Voyager 1 and 2 flybys in 1979. Even in those first … Read more
Stitching is getting a shocking upgrade. In an experiment with mice, a new strong and flexible thread accelerated wound healing by converting muscle movement into electrical energy, researchers report Oct. 8. Nature Communications. If the material is eventually deemed safe for use in humans, it “could change the way we treat injuries,” says materials scientist … Read more