Archivo: Science News
Reactor experiment demonstrates alternative fusion scheme
Researchers in Japan have demonstrated, for the first time in a fusion reactor, a type of fuel that is plentiful and doesn’t produce damaging particles
Will climate change make animals darker—or lighter?
A 19th century claim has fueled a 21st century debate about how a warming climate might reshape animals. Beginning in the early 1800s, biologists identified multiple “rules” describing the ecological and evolutionary impacts of temperature. One rule held that animals have bigger appendages (ears, beaks) in hot climates, to help dissipate body heat. Another said that, within any group of animals, the biggest generally reside closer to the poles—think of polar bears towering over midlatitude brown bears—because larger bodies help retain heat.
Mineral body armor helps some leaf-cutting ants win fights with bigger kin
A species of leaf-cutting ant has a tough layer of calcite on its exoskeleton, experiments show
Rulers of Ancient Egypt’s Enigmatic Hyksos Dynasty Were Immigrants, Not Invaders
New research led by Bournemouth University archaeologists supports the theory that the Hyksos, the rulers of the 15th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, were not from a unified place of origin, but Western Asiatics whose ancestors moved into Egypt during the Middle Kingdom, lived there for centuries, and then rose to rule the north of Egypt.
What the electron’s near-perfect roundness means for new physics
The particle’s most precise measurement yet suggests the LHC isn’t large enough
Colliding black holes are reported for a fifth time
Spacetime ripples from black holes are becoming routine.
Hunting dark matter with GPS data
A team of physicists has used data from GPS satellites to hunt for dark matter, the mysterious stuff whose gravity appears to hold galaxies together. They found no signs of a hypothetical type of dark matter, which consists of flaws in the fabric of space called topological defects, but they say they have vastly narrowed the characteristics for how the defects—if they exist—would interact with ordinary matter. Their findings show how surprisingly innovative—and, in this case, cheap—methods might be used to test new ideas of what dark matter might be.
Why quantum mechanics might need an overhaul
Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg says current debates suggest need for new approach to comprehend reality
Forest test reveals climate warming effect on ant Game of Thrones
Climate change shifts how long ants hang on to coveted real estate
Blame bad incentives for bad science
How a ‘publish or perish’ attitude may be derailing the scientific enterprise