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Mammals may possess the ability to pause embryonic development before implantation, according to a new study in PLoS ONE. Many animal embryos are able to undergo diapause, a period of arrested development, before implanting in the uterus, but though only 2 percent of mammals were known to have this ability, reported Nature. Now, researchers in…
The future of personalized genomic medicine can be glimpsed in a paper that reports the integration of lead author Michael Snyder’s genomic sequence with other ‘omics’ to give a read-out on his predisposition to disease, and his body’s response to viral infections and the onset of type 2 diabetes. As a proof-of-principle example of personalized…
Galaxies don’t seem to have enough matter inside them to keep forming new stars at the rates that they do. Now, astronomers have caught a galaxy in the act of recycling material that it previously threw out, which may explain the discrepancy. New observations provide the first direct evidence of gas flowing into distant galaxies…
Stronger global governance is needed to mitigate human impact on the earth’s climate and to ensure sustainable development, according to 32 scientists who published a paper in the journal Science. In “Navigating the Anthropocene: Improving Earth System Governance,” the scholars argue that current institutions, including the United Nations, have shown themselves inadequate to the necessities…
A litany of food scares–and rules for organic produce–have pushed the industry to seek new solutions for food safety.
The early Earth flipped back and forth between a hydrocarbon-free atmosphere and a hydrocarbon-rich one similar to that of Saturn’s moon, Titan. This ‘see-sawing’ atmosphere over 2.5 billion years ago was the result of intense microbial activity, say Newcastle University scientists, and would have had a profound effect on the climate of the Earth system….
The United States is currently in the throes of a spiritual awakening, says Diana Butler Bass. In her new book, Christianity After Religion, Bass argues that we are at a crossroads in history—we can choose to move forward into new emerging spiritualities, or we can heed the siren sound of the traditionalists calling us back…
The Hubble Space Telescope is taking advantage of a naturally occurring lens in space to extend its range even more. Scientists report this week that Hubble has found several bright quasars — galaxies that are home to supermassive black holes — which are strategically positioned so that that are warping the light from even more…
Anyone who bet against Einstein better get out their wallet. That’s because those supposedly faster-than-light particles that shook up the world of physics last September are now looking a lot slower. A second experiment deep in an Italian mountain timed these subatomic particles, called neutrinos, traveling at precisely the speed of light and no faster,…
Created in 1947, the doomsday clock graphically reflects how close humanity might be to human-induced apocalypse, in terms of the “number of minutes to midnight”—at which time, presumably, time itself will no longer matter. Currently, the clock is set at five minutes to midnight. Nuclear weapons continue to be the most urgent global threat to…