Science

Science

[:es]Butterflies are vanishing in the western U.S.—but not for the reasons scientists thought[:]

Earth is in the midst of an insect apocalypse, with thousands of species dwindling over the past several decades. Scientists have often blamed habitat loss or pesticide use. But a new study of butterflies in the western United States has found that warmer fall weather may be taking as big, if not a bigger, toll.
Science

[:es]The genes behind the sexiest birds on the planet[:]

For a glimpse of the power of sexual selection, the dance of the golden-collared manakin is hard to beat. Each June in the rainforests of Panama, the sparrow-size male birds gather to fluff their brilliant yellow throats, lift their wings, and clap them together in rapid fire, up to 60 times a second. When a…
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[:es]When should you end a conversation? Probably sooner than you think[:]

While studying for his master’s degree at the University of Oxford, Adam Mastroianni confronted a fear common to many party goers: Would he get stuck in a conversation with no polite way out? Then, Mastroianni had another thought: Perhaps his future conversation partner had the same concern. “What if we’re all trapped in conversations because…
Science

[:es]The first organism to use oxygen may have appeared surprisingly early[:]

The first organisms to “breathe” oxygen—or at least use it—appeared 3.1 billion years ago, according to a new genetic analysis of dozens of families of microbes. The find is surprising because the Great Oxidation Event, which filled Earth’s atmosphere with the precious gas, didn’t occur until some 500 million years later.
Science

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

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[:]

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[:]

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[:]

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[:]

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…