BlogHide Resteemsbluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoMammals’ bodies outpaced their brains right after the dinosaurs diedArctocyon primaevus (skull shown) was a Paleocene mammal that lived shortly after the mass extinction event that killed off nonbird dinosaurs. A new analysis of mammal brain sizes before and after…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoA global warming pause that didn’t happen hampered climate scienceIt was one of the biggest climate change questions of the early 2000s: Had the planet’s rising fever stalled, even as humans pumped more heat-trapping gases into Earth’s atmosphere? By the turn of…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoWe finally have a fully complete human genomeResearchers have finally deciphered a complete human genetic instruction book from cover to cover. The completion of the human genome has been announced a couple of times in the past, but those…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoHere are the Top 10 times scientific imagination failedScience, some would say, is an enterprise that should concern itself solely with cold, hard facts. Flights of imagination should be the province of philosophers and poets. On the other hand, as…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoVagina Obscura’ shows how little is known about female biologyMore than 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates, the Greek physician often considered the father of modern medicine, identified what came to be known as the clitoris, a “little pillar” of erectile tissue…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoWally Broecker divined how the climate could suddenly shiftIt was the mid-1980s, at a meeting in Switzerland, when Wally Broecker’s ears perked up. Scientist Hans Oeschger was describing an ice core drilled at a military radar station in southern Greenland.…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoSocial media crackdowns during the war in Ukraine make the internet less globalSince Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, people around the world have watched the war play out in jarring detail — at least, in countries with open access to social media platforms such…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoSome past Science News coverage was racist and sexist. We’re deeply sorryIn late 2019, with the 100th birthday of Science News a few years off, our team considered how we might celebrate. We realized that inviting the world to explore the more than 80,000 original…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoWe’re celebrating a century of Science NewsThe first three months of covering the COVID-19 pandemic felt, by Tina Hesman Saey’s estimation, “closer to 300 years.” From February to April 2020, the Science News senior molecular biology writer…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoHow I’ll decide when it’s time to ditch my maskFor weeks, I have been watching coronavirus cases drop across the United States. At the same time, cases were heading skyward in many places in Europe, Asia and Oceania. Those surges may have peaked…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoSpinosaurus’ dense bones fuel debate over whether some dinosaurs could swimThe dense bones of Spinosaurus (illustrated) may have helped keep it submerged in water, allowing the dinosaur to hunt prey such as ancient sawfish while swimming. A fierce group of predatory…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoNASA’s exoplanet count surges past 5,000Our galaxy hosts more than 5,000 planets (pinpointed on this image of the Milky Way). Circle sizes show relative orbit sizes; colors denote various detection methods. The dense purple patch (center…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoHow climbers help scientists vibe with Utah’s famous red rock formationsAs Kathryn Vollinger prepared to climb Castleton Tower, a 120-meter-tall sandstone formation in the desert near Moab, Utah, the outdoor guide assessed her gear. Ropes? Check. Helmet and harnesses…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoHow light from black holes is narrowing the search for axionsThe search for a hypothetical subatomic particle that could signal new physics just narrowed a bit — thanks to the light swirling around a gargantuan black hole in another galaxy. The lightweight…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoWhat do we mean by ‘COVID-19 changes your brain’?Like all writers, I spend large chunks of my time looking for words. When it comes to the ultracomplicated and mysterious brain, I need words that capture nuance and uncertainties. The right words…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoWhat made the last century’s great innovations possible?In the early decades of the 20th century, a slew of technologies began altering daily life with seemingly unprecedented speed and breadth. Suddenly, consumers could enjoy affordable automobiles.…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoRacial bias can seep into U.S. patients’ medical notesWhen health care providers enter notes into patients’ electronic health records, they are more likely to portray Black patients negatively compared with white patients, two recent studies have…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoAn extinct rat shows CRISPR’s limits for resurrecting speciesBefore the early 1900s, if it walked like a Christmas Island rat and talked like a Christmas Island rat, it probably was a Christmas Island rat. But if one of these now-extinct rats ever walks the…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoHow did we get here? The roots and impacts of the climate crisisEven in a world increasingly battered by weather extremes, the summer 2021 heat wave in the Pacific Northwest stood out. For several days in late June, cities such as Vancouver, Portland and Seattle…bluebonnet (60)in news • 3 years agoLithium mining may be putting some flamingos in Chile at riskFlamingos may be a kind of canary in the coal mine when it comes to warning of a hidden cost of green technologies. Lithium mining appears to be a major threat to the iconic pink birds that rely on…
