Science

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…
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[:es]Sloppy science or groundbreaking idea? Theory for how cells organize contents divides biologists[:]

[:es]For 7 years as president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Robert Tjian helped steer hundreds of millions of dollars to scientists probing provocative ideas that might transform biology and biomedicine. So the biochemist was intrigued a couple of years ago when his graduate student David McSwiggen uncovered data likely to fuel excitement about a…
Science

[:es]Like humans, wasps seem to recognize faces as more than the sum of their parts[:]

[:es]Golden paper wasps have demanding social lives. To keep track of who’s who in a complex pecking order, they have to recognize and remember many individual faces. Now, an experiment suggests the brains of these wasps process faces all at once—similar to how human facial recognition works. It’s the first evidence of insects identifying one…
Science

[:es]Swarms of robotic fish can synchronize their swimming, for the first time[:]

[:es]Swimming in sync is one of the most important lessons a school of fish can learn: The coordination helps them find food—and evade predators. But when scientists try to train robots to match this stunning natural feat, most fall short. Now, researchers have developed a fleet of seven underwater “fishbots” that can swim in circles—without…
Science

[:es]The legendary dire wolf may not have been a wolf at all[:]

[:es]One of North America’s most famous ancient predators—and a favorite of Game of Thrones fans—emerged as mysteriously as it disappeared. Dire wolves, which died out with mammoths and saber-toothed cats at the end of the last ice age, were long thought to be close cousins of gray wolves. Now, the first analysis of dire wolf…
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[:es]Scientists ‘program’ living bacteria to store data[:]

[:es]Hard disks and optical drives store gigabits of digital data at the press of a button. But those technologies—like the magnetic tapes and floppy drives before them—are apt to become antiquated and unreadable when they are overtaken by new technology. Now, researchers have come up with a way to electronically write data into the DNA…
Science

[:es]After decades of effort, scientists are finally seeing black holes—or are they?[:]

[:es]The observations are already challenging astrophysicists’ assumptions about how black holes form and influence their surroundings. The smaller black holes detected by LIGO and, now, the European gravitational wave detector Virgo in Italy have proved heavier and more varied than expected, straining astrophysicists’ understanding of the massive stars from which they presumably form. And the…
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[:es]Galloping sea lions could inspire land-sea robots[:]

[:es]Some robots swim and dive through the water; others scurry across the land. Now, researchers want to build a machine that can do both. Their inspiration? The California sea lion.[:]