SciGlow | All Science News In One Place
SciGlow is a newsletter of science stories from the major research labs. Headlines link to in-depth articles and editorials. SciGlow keeps scientists and others up-to-date on current research.
Using old tree rings and archival documents, historians and climate scientists have detailed an extreme cold period in Scotland in the 1690s that caused immense suffering. It decimated agriculture, killed as much as 15 percent of the population and sparked a fatal attempt to establish a Scottish colony in southern Panama. The researchers say the episode—shown in their study … Read more
Alone, as a pair or in groups – the diversity in social systems of primates is interesting because it may also provide insights into human social life. An evolutionary biologist from the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, together with a colleague from the University of Texas at San Antonio, investigated how … Read more
Imagine having access to a battery, which has the potential to power your phone for five continuous days, or enable an electric vehicle to drive more than 1000km without needing to “refuel”. Monash University researchers are on the brink of commercialising the world’s most efficient lithium-sulphur (Li-S) battery, which could outperform current market leaders by … Read more
Researchers are moving closer to a new approach for improving spinal fusion procedures and repairing broken or defective bones that avoids an over-production of bone that commonly occurs in current treatments. In a preclinical study, researchers significantly reduced undesired bone growth outside of targeted repair areas in rat femurs by delivering a potent bone-forming protein … Read more
It’s a controversy that goes back to a Nobel Prize winning idea that there is a specific part of our brain that acts as our Global Positioning System (GPS), responsible for knowing at any given time where we are in the world and how to navigate it. Recently, scientists in the neuroscience community have disagreed … Read more
The 170,000-year-old charred remains of starchy plant parts from Border Cave, South Africa provides the earliest direct evidence for the collecting and cooking of carbohydrate-rich rhizomes, a new study reports. The findings suggest that palatable rhizomes from Hypoxis sp.– a genus of small flowering plants – may have been a reliable and transportable staple food for Middle … Read more
On a hillside above Stanford University, the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory operates a scientific instrument nearly 2 miles long. In this giant accelerator, a stream of electrons flows through a vacuum pipe, as bursts of microwave radiation nudge the particles ever-faster forward until their velocity approaches the speed of light, creating a powerful beam that … Read more
Color-changing fibers and mathematical theory combine to disclose the simple rules that govern the strength and stability of commonly used knots, researchers report. The new study addresses a centuries-old mystery – what makes knots work? Fibers tied into knots and tangles remain one of humanity’s most ancient and enduring technologies and play a ubiquitous, fundamental … Read more
Scientists have shown for the first time that brittle stars use vision to guide them through vibrant coral reefs, thanks to a neat colour-changing trick. The international team, led by researchers at Oxford University Museum of Natural History, described a new mechanism for vision in the red brittle star Ophiocoma wendtii, a relative to sea stars … Read more
In October this year, weather researchers in Utah measured the lowest temperature ever recorded in the month of October in the US (excluding Alaska): -37.1°C. The previous low-temperature record for October was -35°C, and people wondered what had happened to climate change. Until now, climate researchers have responded that climate is not the same thing … Read more