Chair of Scientific Culture of the University of the Basque Country

Science

Science

[:es]How fairy circles form in Shanghai’s salt marshes[:]

[:es]Dry areas of Namibia and Australia are well known for their fairy circles—barren rings that dot grasslands and are thought to result from termites and water scarcity. But moist regions have fairy circles, too. A new study reveals what is driving their formation in the salt marshes of eastern China.[:]
Science

[:es]Humble dung beetles may be ideal DNA detectors for animal surveys[:]

[:es]Biologists wanting to identify the resident creatures of a location, be it nearby woods or a distant mountainside, could soon have new assistants to help them vacuum up a surrounding’s DNA: dung beetles. The guts of these unfussy eaters contain species-identifying mammalian DNA, a study has found, and could provide an easy, low-tech way to…
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[:es]Mammoth molars yield the oldest DNA ever sequenced[:]

[:es]A genetic analysis of long-extinct Siberian mammoths has nearly doubled the record for the oldest DNA yet sequenced. The genetic material, from a creature that roamed frozen lands some 1.2 million years ago, pushes the study of ancient DNA closer to its theoretical limit—and reveals a new lineage of mammoth.[:]
Science

[:es]Hopes evaporate for the superheavy element flerovium having a long life[:]

[:es]For decades, nuclear physicists have blasted record-breaking superheavy elements into existence, extending the periodic table step by step beyond uranium, the heaviest natural element. Such heavyweights tend to be unstable, but theory predicts “magic numbers” of protons and neutrons that confer extra stability, and finding a long-lived superheavy has long been a holy grail for…
Science

[:es]The race to treat a rare, fatal syndrome may help others with common disorders like diabetes[:]

[:es]Maureen Marshall-Doss says the first sign that her vision was deteriorating came when she misidentified the color of a dress. At a backyard get-together about 20 years ago, the Indianapolis resident pointed out an attractive yellow dress another woman was wearing. “You see that as yellow? She’s wearing a pink dress,” Marshall-Doss recalls her husband…
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[:es]Prozac turns guppies into ‘zombies’[:]

[:es]Prozac might need a new warning label: “Caution: This antidepressant may turn fish into zombies.”[:]
Science

[:es]Mutant zebrafish with extra fin bones may hold clues to how the first animals walked on land[:]

[:es]Almost 700 years ago, a Dutch naturalist envisioned a fish with arms that would enable it to climb out of the water, setting the stage for terrestrial life. Now, it turns out, his fantasy had roots in reality. Researchers studying skeletons of the finger-size zebrafish have discovered mutants that grow extra bones in their front…
Science

[:es]The cloak-and-dagger tale behind this year’s most anticipated result in particle physics[:]

[:es]In 1986, the TV journalist Dan Rather was attacked in New York City. A deranged assailant pummeled him while cryptically demanding, “Kenneth, what’s the frequency?” The query became a pop culture meme, and the rock band R.E.M. even based a hit song on it. Now, it could be the motto for the team about to…
Science

[:es]Ice age Siberian hunters may have domesticated dogs 23,000 years ago[:]

[:es]Sometime toward the end of the last ice age, a group of humans armed with stone-tipped spears stalked their prey in the bitter cold of northeastern Siberia, tracking bison and woolly mammoths across a vast, grassy landscape. Beside them ran wolflike creatures, more docile than their ancestors and remarkably willing to help their primate companions…