Science News
Editing human embryos is genetics' new battleground
New Scientist - 16 Mar 2015 14:30
Will pioneering work to alter genes in human germ cells or early embryos allow us to make superbabies, and is it ethical? New Scientist explores the issues
How our wolf-dogs hounded out the Neanderthals
New Scientist - 16 Mar 2015 20:00
Cooperating with wolves could have given humans the edge over Neanderthals when we entered Europe, says palaeoanthropologist Pat Shipman (full text available to subscribers)
Vanuatu disaster prompts calls for climate change action
New Scientist - 16 Mar 2015 15:12
Cyclone Pam, which tore across Vanuatu, killing eight people, has been explicitly linked to climate change by the country's president and climate scientists
17-Million-Year-Old Whale Skull Helps Place Humanity's First Steps
Live Science - 16 Mar 2015 22:11
A 17-million-year-old beaked whale fossil is helping researchers solve a puzzle about the likely birthplace of humanity in East Africa, a new study finds.
Second natural quasicrystal found in 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite
Phys.org - 16 Mar 2015 23:01
A team from Princeton University and the University of Florence in Italy has discovered a quasicrystal--so named because of its unorthodox arrangement of atoms--in a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite from a remote region of...
Team offers new insights into radiation damage evolution
Phys.org - 16 Mar 2015 22:57
Two reports from Los Alamos National Laboratory this week in the Nature journal Scientific Reports are helping crack the code of how certain materials respond in the highly-damaging radiation environments within a nuclea...
British Spider Spins Unusual Web
Physics Buzz - 16 Mar 2015 22:27
Originally published: Mar 10 2015 - 12:45pm, Inside Science News ServiceBy: Peter Gwynne, Contributor(Inside Science) - A type of spider commonly found in British retail nurseries has a unique way of spinning its web, ac...
Chance: Peace talks in the probability wars
New Scientist - 16 Mar 2015 22:00
Working out probabilities is just simple maths, right? Wrong - from drug trials to court cases, being Bayesian or frequentist can make all the difference (full text available to subscribers)
Oldest Roman Fort Protected Soldiers from 'Infamous Pirates'
Live Science - 16 Mar 2015 21:51
Using airborne laser scanners, researchers have discovered ancient fortifications in Italy that make up the oldest known Roman military camp, where soldiers may have fought pirates more than 2,000 years ago.
Quirky Robots Invade SXSW Festival (Photos)
Live Science - 16 Mar 2015 21:27
At the Robot Petting Zoo, makers showed off everything from a social robot to an insectlike creature that gazes longingly into your eyes.
Cough Medicine Ingredient May Aid Diabetes Fight
Live Science - 16 Mar 2015 21:21
An ingredient in some cough medicines may help in the fight against Type 2 diabetes, new findings suggest.
Uncovering the secrets of super solar power perovskites
e! Science News - 16 Mar 2015 20:05
The best hope for cheap, super-efficient solar power is a remarkable family of crystalline materials called hybrid perovskites. In just five years of development, hybrid perovskite solar cells have attained power convers...
Confirming Einstein, scientists find 'spacetime foam'
Phys.org - 16 Mar 2015 19:34
One hundred years after Albert Einstein formulated the general theory of relativity, an international team has proposed another experimental proof. In a paper published today in Nature Physics, researchers from the Hebre...
El Niño Can Predict Tornado Season's Severity
Live Science - 16 Mar 2015 19:21
This year's El Niño may deliver a quiet tornado season.
Yeti Debate Swirls: Study Reveals Origin of Mysterious Hairs
Live Science - 16 Mar 2015 18:34
The yeti, a legendary shaggy, bipedal beast from the Himalayas, made headlines last year when a geneticist said he had solved the mystery of its origins. But now, scientists have found the hair samples used in that study...
Earthquakes paint a picture of the inside of the Earth
New Scientist - 16 Mar 2015 18:27
Eavesdropping on seismic waves rumbling through our planet helps us work out its internal structure, and now one team aims to map the entire mantle in this way
Scientists move closer to 'two for one deal' on solar cell efficiency
Phys.org - 16 Mar 2015 18:00
The underlying mechanism behind an enigmatic process called "singlet exciton fission", which could enable the development of significantly more powerful solar cells, has been identified by scientists in a new study.
Uncovering the secrets of super solar power perovskites
Phys.org - 16 Mar 2015 18:00
The best hope for cheap, super-efficient solar power is a remarkable family of crystalline materials called hybrid perovskites. In just five years of development, hybrid perovskite solar cells have attained power convers...
Confirmed: Disneyland Measles Outbreak Linked to Low Vaccination Rates
Live Science - 16 Mar 2015 17:32
Low vaccination rates are what's driving the large outbreak of measles that began at Disneyland in California last December, a new analysis suggests.
New remote control for molecular motors
Phys.org - 16 Mar 2015 17:11
In the eyes of physicists, magnetic molecules can be considered as nanoscale magnets. Remotely controlling the direction in which they rotate, like spinning tops, may intuitively be difficult to achieve. However, Russian...
Ice makes unlikely rocket fuel for CubeSats
New Scientist - 16 Mar 2015 15:26
These low-cost satellites are limited in what they can do by the lack of a good propulsion system, but using ice could change that
You Decide: What's the Deadliest Creature in the Animal Kingdom?
Live Science - 16 Mar 2015 15:25
In a March Madness-style tournament, Live Science is looking to settle the debate about which creature is the deadliest in the Animal Kingdom.