Editor’s note: The Parker Solar Probe’s planned Aug. 11 launch was scrubbed to look into an issue with the rocket’s helium pressure. The spacecraft is now set to lift off on its journey to the sun at 3:31 a.m. EDT on August 12 at the earliest. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is ready to reach for […]
A Nobel Prize–winning discovery — that small double-stranded RNA molecules can silence genes by interrupting the translation of DNA’s instructions into proteins — is finally delivering on its medical promise. The first drug that takes advantage of this natural biological process, called RNA interference, was approved August 10 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. […]
Breathing dirty air exacts a price — specifically, months, or even years, off of life. On average worldwide, air pollution shaves a year off of human life expectancy, scientists report August 22 in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. In more polluted regions of Asia and Africa, lives are shortened by 1.5 to two years on […]
In 2005, a total of 28 named tropical cyclones churned across the Atlantic Ocean. That set a record that is likely to stand for a while: There is only a 3.2 percent chance of more Atlantic storms forming in any one year, at least under current climate conditions, scientists report August 22 in Science Advances. […]
One thing leads to another. It sounds obvious, but in the quantum realm, the saying doesn’t always ring true. A new quantum device can jumble up a sequence of two events so that they take place in both orders simultaneously, researchers report in a paper in press in Physical Review Letters. “In everyday life, we […]
Gene editing can reverse muscular dystrophy in dogs. Using CRISPR/Cas9 in beagle puppies, scientists have fixed a genetic mutation that causes muscle weakness and degeneration, researchers report online August 30 in Science. Corrections to the gene responsible for muscular dystrophy have been made before in mice and human muscle cells in dishes, but never in […]
Skulls seem solid, but the thick bones are actually riddled with tiny tunnels. Microscopic channels cut through the skull bones of people and mice, scientists found. In mice, inflammatory immune cells use these previously hidden channels to travel from the bone marrow of the skull to the brain, the team reports August 27 in Nature […]
The days of the great Pacific garbage patch may be numbered. A highly anticipated project to scoop up plastic from the massive pool of ocean debris is poised to launch its first phase from Alameda, Calif., on September 8. The creators of the project, called the Ocean Cleanup, say their system can remove 90 percent […]
A natural history museum isn’t just a place to take visiting relatives or for entertaining kids on the weekends. These museums’ collections also play a vital, but under-celebrated, role in scientific research. That’s why, when Brazil’s National Museum in Rio de Janeiro caught fire on September 2, more than just a catalog of natural and […]
In movies and TV shows, Tyrannosaurus rex often sports a fleet of big, sharp teeth that are almost always on display. But the dinosaurs and their kin may have kept their pearly whites mostly tucked behind lizardlike lips. Similar to Komodo dragons today, these dinosaurs had ample soft tissue around the mouth that would have […]