Science

Science

[:es]Mongoose mothers help their colonies thrive—by forgetting which pups are theirs[:]

Pregnant mongooses in a colony all give birth on the same night, a phenomenon that makes it harder for mothers to know which pups are their own. But that confusion works in their favor—and may even lead to a fairer distribution of scarce resources—researchers report today in Nature Communications.
Science

[:es] The Mystery Formation of Extremely Rich Gold Veins Might Finally Be Solved [:]

Gold, for all its wonderful uses, isn’t hugely abundant in Earth’s upper layers. For each ton of crust material, there’s an estimated just 0.004 grams of the precious metal. Yet somehow, there are regions that contain “bonanza” abundances – hyper-enrichment, in the scientific parlance. How these gold veins form in time spans as short as…
Science

[:es]More Accurate Clocks Unleash More Disorder in The Universe[:]

What’s the price of an accurate clock? Entropy, a new study has revealed.
Science

[:es]No shared language? No problem! People across cultures understand clues from ‘vocal charades’[:]

One of the hardest questions for evolutionary linguists is why humans speak at all. When people don’t share a language, they quickly resort to using their hands, rather than their voices: It’s easier to mime “drink” than it is to make a noise that sounds like drinking. Those gestures, over time, can easily blossom into…
Science

[:es]Landmark study casts doubt on controversial theory linking melting Arctic to severe winter weather[:]

Every time severe winter weather strikes the United States or Europe, reporters are fond of saying that global warming may be to blame. The paradox goes like this: As Arctic sea ice melts and the polar atmosphere warms, the swirling winds that confine cold Arctic air weaken, letting it spill farther south. But this idea,…
Science

[:es]Neanderthals carb loaded, helping grow their big brains [:]

Here’s another blow to the popular image of Neanderthals as brutish meat eaters: A new study of bacteria collected from Neanderthal teeth shows that our close cousins ate so many roots, nuts, or other starchy foods that they dramatically altered the type of bacteria in their mouths. The finding suggests our ancestors had adapted to…
Science

[:es]Further evidence supports controversial claim that SARS-CoV-2 genes can integrate with human DNA[:]

A team of prominent scientists has doubled down on its controversial hypothesis that genetic bits of the pandemic coronavirus can integrate into our chromosomes and stick around long after the infection is over. If they are right—skeptics have argued that their results are likely lab artifacts—the insertions could explain the rare finding that people can…
Science

[:es]Can scientists help insects survive their fatal attraction to light at night?[:]

Each summer, on bridges across the world, mayfly massacres occur. First, warm weather prompts the transformation of the insects’ aquatic larvae. Within hours, the short-lived, flying adults pop out of streams, rivers, and lakes, eager to mate and lay eggs by the millions.
Science

[:es]Gut microbiota through an evolutionary lens[:]

Complex tripartite human-microbiota-environment interactions present an unsolved puzzle for human health: When is it better for the gut microbiota to track versus resist environmental change?