Butterflies may lose their ‘tails’ like lizards
On some butterfly wings, “tails” may be more than just elegant adornments. They’re survival tools too, a study suggests. The tails seem to attract...
SCIENTIFIC NEWS
Lucy Cooke’s new book ‘Bitch’ busts myths about female animals
BitchLucy CookeBasic Books, $30 To Charles Darwin, nature had a certain order. And in that order, males always came out on top. They were...
A celestial loner might be the first known rogue black hole
A solitary celestial object — more massive than the sun, yet far smaller — is wandering the galaxy a few thousand light-years from Earth....
Why even small sonic booms are more annoying in cities
Sonic booms can be particularly annoying in cities, where tall buildings and narrow streets boost noise levels and cause the noise to linger, new...
New Gaia data paint the most detailed picture yet of the Milky Way
1.6 billion stars. 11.4 million galaxies. 158,000 asteroids. One spacecraft. The European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory, which launched in 2013, has long surpassed...
Nasal vaccines for COVID-19 offer hope and face hurdles
A few weeks ago, I was obsessed with my nose and throat. I was on a trip to Seattle to speak at a small,...
Scientists created ‘smoke rings’ of light
Smoke rings are being seen in a new light. Doughnut-shaped structures called vortex rings are sometimes seen swirling through fluids. Smokers can form them...
Samples of the asteroid Ryugu are scientists’ purest pieces of the solar system
Samples of the asteroid Ryugu are the most pristine pieces of the solar system that scientists have in their possession. A new analysis of...
Quantum physics exponentially improves some types of machine learning
Machine learning can get a boost from quantum physics. On certain types of machine learning tasks, quantum computers have an exponential advantage over standard...
Ancient penguin bones reveal unprecedented shrinkage in key Antarctic glaciers
Antarctica’s Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers are losing ice more quickly than they have at any time in the last few thousand years, ancient...
World News in Brief: ‘No safe place in Ukraine’, IAEA calls for Iran nuclear inspections, Kenya hosts thousands of Ethiopians fleeing clashes 
How brain implants turn thoughts into speech 
Kenya: 20 Ebola contacts released from quarantine 
Record carbon dioxide levels will impact us for centuries, says UN weather agency