Ciencia en los medios

It’s supposedly getting easier for innovative drugs for rare diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy to reach the market. So why, asks Andy Extance, is hesitancy still proving devastating to desperate families?

Dean Hamer finally feels vindicated. More than 20 years ago, in a study that triggered both scientific and cultural controversy, the molecular biologist offered the first direct evidence of a “gay gene,” by identifying a stretch on the X chromosome likely associated with homosexuality. But several subsequent studies called his finding into question. Now the…

Un estudio con 260 especies de mamíferos apunta a la estructura social de estos animales como causa del infanticidio. En algunos casos, las hembras adoptan la promiscuidad como sistema de defensa.

Con la posible excepción del bosón de Higgs, el del hobbit de Floresha sido probablemente el descubrimiento con más impacto social de los últimos diez años. Y sería muy difícil decidir cuál de los dos es más extraño, aunque los dos hitos científicos no pueden ser más dispares: una tecnología punta de 2.000 millones de euros…

Europako landaguneetako hegaztien populazioak beherakada handia izan du 30 urte hauetan: 431 milioi txori gutxiago daude. Batez ere, XX. mendeko nekazaritza eta abeltzaintza ustiaketak eragin du hori; izan ere, lurren kudeaketa industrialak degradatu egin du bioaniztasuna.

All spiders are predators, but most of them are small and have rudimentary defences against larger animals that in turn prey on them. Spiders have thus evolved a range of predatory behaviours that, at the same time, allow them to evade the threat of predation. Some of the most effective strategies involve deceiving ants.

Startup Knightscope is preparing to roll out human-size robot patrols.

Call it the climate change conundrum: Even though humans are pumping more greenhouse gases than ever into the atmosphere, the world’s average air temperature isn’t rising as quickly as it once did. Some scientists have proposed that the missing heat is actually being trapped deep underwater by the Pacific Ocean. But a new modeling study…

An ancient meteorite has now yielded the first physical evidence that intense magnetic fields played a major role in the birth of our solar system.