Chair of Scientific Culture of the University of the Basque Country

Science

Science

[:es]Galactic flash points to long-sought source for enigmatic radio bursts[:]

[:es]On 28 April, as Earth’s rotation swept a Canadian radio telescope across the sky, it watched for mysterious millisecondslong flashes called fast radio bursts (FRBs). At 7:34 a.m. local time an enormous one appeared, but awkwardly, in the peripheral vision of the scope. “It was way off the edge of the telescope,” says Paul Scholz,…
Science

[:es]Ancient DNA reveals diverse origins of Caribbean’s earliest inhabitants[:]

[:es]The Caribbean, which today includes a diverse mix of human cultures, was one of the last places in the Americas occupied by people. Yet researchers don’t know precisely where these early migrants came from when they arrived somewhere between 8000 and 5000 years ago. Now, ancient DNA suggests the deep history of the Caribbean includes…
Science

[:es]Insect wings evolved from legs, mayfly genome suggests[:]

[:es]Along rivers and streams around the world, mayflies are a rite of spring. The mosquito-size insects lead double lives, with the young thriving in water and the adults emerging by the millions around June for just a few hours to mate and quickly die. There can be so many that they clog traffic, make roads…
Science

[:es]Designer antibodies fight cancer by tethering immune cells to tumor cells[:]

[:es]Amy Boland has gone through many ups and downs since she noticed lumps under her arms 12 years ago and learned she had cancer of the lymph system. For about 6 years, conventional chemotherapy helped shrink her lymphoma tumors, but they started to grow again. A succession of other cancer therapies, including a bone marrow…
Science

[:es]Eye-catching advances in some AI fields are not real[:]

[:es]Artificial intelligence (AI) just seems to get smarter and smarter. Each iPhone learns your face, voice, and habits better than the last, and the threats AI poses to privacy and jobs continue to grow. The surge reflects faster chips, more data, and better algorithms. But some of the improvement comes from tweaks rather than the…
Science

[:es]Mysterious ancient rock art may have been made with beeswax[:]

[:es]This 500-year-old rock art is among the rarest in the world. Found at a site called Yilbilinji near northern Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria—and depicting a humanlike figure holding a boomerang (right), surrounded by more boomerangs—it’s a type of stenciling that involved creating miniature outlines of humans, tools, and other shapes. Similar, much older mini-stencils have…
Science

[:es]Hungry bumble bees make plants flower early by cutting holes in their leaves[:]

[:es]When bumble bee queens emerge from hibernation, they need to gather pollen and nectar to start their new colonies. If they wake up too soon, there may not be enough flowers in bloom. Now, researchers have discovered the bees have a way to order some fast food: They nibble holes in leaves, spurring plants to…
Science

[:es]Cold War satellites inadvertently tracked species declines[:]

[:es]When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit in 1957, the United States responded with its own spy satellites. The espionage program, known as Corona, sought to locate Soviet missile sites, but its Google Earth–like photography captured something unintended: snapshots of animals and their habitats frozen in time. Now, by comparing these images with modern…
Science

[:es]How Venus flytraps evolved their taste for meat[:]

[:es]How does a plant develop a taste for flesh? In the play Little Shop of Horrors, all it takes is a drop of human blood. But in real life, it takes much more. Now, a study of three closely related carnivorous plants suggests dextrous genetic shuffling helped them evolve the ability to catch and digest…