Hornbills join toucans in the cool beak club
In the scorching heat of the Kalahari Desert, some birds still manage to keep their cool. Thermal imaging reveals that the southern yellow-billed hornbill (Tockus leucomelas) vents heat from its…
Bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotic appears in U.S.
A last-ditch weapon against drug-resistant bacteria has met its match in Pennsylvania. A 49-year-old woman has tested positive for a strain of Escherichia coli resistant to the antibiotic colistin, researchers…
Refined ‘three-parent-baby’ procedure improves chances for healthy infant
Improvements in a technique for making “three-parent babies” could reduce the risk of passing on faulty mitochondria, the energy-producing organelles in cells. Less than 2 percent of mitochondria were defective…
Molecular handedness found in space
SAN DIEGO — A clue about why life on Earth chooses only one mirror-image form of certain molecules might lie in a gas cloud tens of thousands of light-years away.…
Earth has a tiny tagalong, and no, it’s not a moon
QuasisatelliteKWAH-zee-SAT-ah-lite n.A body that orbits the sun and appears to orbit Earth. Asteroid 2016 HO3 appears to orbit Earth, but that’s just an illusion. As the space rock loops around…
Nuclear bomb debris can reveal blast size, even decades later
A new type of fallout forensics can reconstruct nuclear blasts decades after detonation. By measuring the relative abundance of various elements in debris left over from nuclear explosions, researchers say…
Black hole born without stellar parent, evidence suggests
A remote galaxy might harbor a type of black hole that arises directly from a massive cloud of gas rather than forming after the death of a star. This rare…
Website tests predictive powers of the hive mind
As the saying goes, “It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” The website Metaculus.com aims to make this challenging task easier by harnessing collective wisdom. Metaculus solicits answers…
Smart mice have better odds of survival
Pinky and The Brain‘s smarts might not be so far-fetched. Some mice are quicker on the uptake than others. While it might not lead to world domination, wits have their…
Mix of brain training, physical therapy can help paralyzed patients
Training the brain could give paraplegics more control over their bodies. After a year working with devices that link machine to brain, people paralyzed by spinal cord injuries were able…