How 3D Changes in the Genome Turned Sharks Into Skates

The marine creatures called skates skim along the sea bottom, rippling their winglike pectoral fins to propel themselves and to stir up small creatures hiding in the sand. Their unusual flattened body plan makes them one of the oddest families of fish in the sea, and it seems even odder that they evolved from streamlined,… Continue reading How 3D Changes in the Genome Turned Sharks Into Skates

Deadly African Drought Wouldn’t Have Happened without Climate Change

Year after year after year the life-sustaining seasonal rains in the Horn of Africa have simply failed to fall. Heat has scorched the soils dry. Crops have shriveled up. Millions of livestock have died. Millions of people face severe food shortages, and several hundred thousand are on the verge of starving to death. Though the… Continue reading Deadly African Drought Wouldn’t Have Happened without Climate Change

Physicists See ‘Strange Matter’ Form inside Atomic Nuclei

A new physics result two decades in the making has found a surprisingly complex path for the production of strange matter within atoms. Strange matter is any matter containing the subatomic particles known as strange quarks. “Strange” here refers, in part, to a profound remoteness from our everyday lives: strange matter only seems to show… Continue reading Physicists See ‘Strange Matter’ Form inside Atomic Nuclei

The Tiny Physics Behind Immense Cosmic Eruptions

During fleeting fits, the sun occasionally hurls a colossal amount of energy into space. Called solar flares, these eruptions last for mere minutes, and they can trigger catastrophic blackouts and dazzling auroras on Earth. But our leading mathematical theories of how these flares work fail to predict the strength and speed of what we observe.… Continue reading The Tiny Physics Behind Immense Cosmic Eruptions

A Proposal to Change Medical Training Will Affect Autism Care

In the U.S., almost 20 percent of children have developmental delays, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ADHD, learning disabilities or speech and language disorders. These disorders are usually diagnosed in childhood and have specific and time-intensive treatments based on severity. The prevalence of some of these disorders is rising, including autism. The Centers for Disease… Continue reading A Proposal to Change Medical Training Will Affect Autism Care

New Math Shows When Solar Systems Become Unstable

Now, in three papers that together exceed 150 pages, Guàrdia and two collaborators have proved for the first time that instability inevitably arises in a model of planets orbiting a sun. “The result is really very spectacular,” said Gabriella Pinzari, a mathematical physicist at the University of Padua in Italy. “The authors proved a theorem… Continue reading New Math Shows When Solar Systems Become Unstable

What It Would Take for Electric Vehicles to Help Power the Grid

CLIMATEWIRE | A new California bill would turn electric vehicles into a backup power supply for the state’s troubled grid. But experts say the idea — while promising — still has some technological hurdles to overcome. And they warn that mandates such as the one prescribed in the California measure could increase the cost of electric… Continue reading What It Would Take for Electric Vehicles to Help Power the Grid

Dogs Can Carry Mutant Flu Strains

Mutant strains of a common human flu virus have been found in dogs for the first time, prompting concerns that such viruses could start to spread easily among pets—and potentially evolve into dangerous new strains that jump back to humans. Nanjing Agricultural University virologist Shuo Su and his colleagues identified two dogs in southern China… Continue reading Dogs Can Carry Mutant Flu Strains

Memories Help Brains Recognize New Events Worth Remembering

Memories are shadows of the past but also flashlights for the future. Our recollections guide us through the world, tune our attention and shape what we learn later in life. Human and animal studies have shown that memories can alter our perceptions of future events and the attention we give them. “We know that past… Continue reading Memories Help Brains Recognize New Events Worth Remembering

Are There Reasons to Believe in a Multiverse?

By definition, the universe seems like it should be the totality of everything that exists. Yet a variety of arguments emerging from cosmology, particle physics and quantum mechanics hint that there could also be unobservable universes beyond our own that follow different laws of nature. While the existence of a multiverse is speculative, for many… Continue reading Are There Reasons to Believe in a Multiverse?