Humans
- Health & Medicine
U.S. mosquitoes now spreading Zika virus
Scientists had worried that if people sick with Zika came to America, local mosquitoes might bite them and spread the disease. That’s now happened.
- Health & Medicine
To remember something new: Exercise!
People who exercised strenuously for a half hour after learning something new cemented those memories. But the trick: Wait four hours before getting the heart pumping vigorously.
- Chemistry
E-cigs create toxic vapors from harmless e-liquids
New study finds a primary source of toxic vaping compounds. It’s the heat-driven breakdown of the liquids that hold nicotine and flavorings. And older, dirtier e-cigs make higher amounts of the toxic chemicals.
- Health & Medicine
To teens, benefits are more persuasive than risks
When potential rewards and punishments are equal, teens are more likely to make decisions based on those rewards than on concerns over any risks, a new study shows.
- Environment
Scientists Say: Poisonous
A poison-arrow frog is poisonous, but a rattlesnake is not. What’s the difference? It’s how the poison is delivered.
- Brain
Hormone affects how teens’ brains control emotions
Using scans of brain activity, scientists show that surging hormones drive where emotions get processed in a teen’s brain.
- Science & Society
Strict gun laws ended mass shootings in Australia
Australia enacted tough gun laws in 1996, which cut gun exposure — especially to semiautomatic weapons. Since then, new data show, that nation has experienced zero mass shootings.
- Health & Medicine
Zika vaccines look promising
As a Zika epidemic surges through Brazil and northward, scientists are looking for drugs to keep more people from becoming infected. Several vaccines show promise in early tests — but none has yet been tried in people.
- Animals
This mammal has the world’s slowest metabolism
A sloth species manages to exist with a super-slow metabolism by moving little and using its environment for heating and cooling its body.
- Humans
Cave holds earliest signs of fire-making in Europe
Ancient burned bone and heated stones in a Spanish cave are the oldest evidence of ancient fire-making in Europe.
- Animals
Catching ‘Dory’ fish can poison entire coral reef ecosystems
More than half of saltwater-aquarium fish sold in the United States may have been caught in the wild using cyanide, new data show.
- Health & Medicine
Adult diseases may be linked to childhood weight
Danish scientists find that very overweight kids grow up with a heightened risk of colon cancer and stroke.
