New Year, New Science
Nature looks ahead to the key findings and events that may emerge in 2013.
Nature looks ahead to the key findings and events that may emerge in 2013.
Thousands of years ago, farming spread across Europe and replaced the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of early inhabitants. Now a study of ancient DNA says that trend was driven by farmers moving from place to place. Scientists have long debated how farming expanded across Europe. Did farmers migrate? Did the idea of farming spread from culture to…
The European Space Agency’s next big mission may be particularly juicy for scientists hunting for signs of extraterrestrial life. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE, spacecraft has been formally approved and is now slated to blast off for the gas giant planet in 2022, ESA officials announced. The space probe will tour three of…
The government is looking for a few good robots. But never fear, this year’s DARPA Robotics Challenge isn’t a casting call for positronic killing machines—instead, teams are being asked to design robots capable of driving a vehicle, using power tools to bash through walls, and even replace a cooling pump, for a $2 million grand…
Research on the link between implicit race preference and brain activity could be used to prevent unintended consequences of race bias
International diversity is just as important as diversity of discipline when it comes to scientific discovery
Flu pandemics have been linked to fluctuations in climate, and new research connects the world’s four most recent pandemics to the cyclical cooling of the Pacific Ocean near the equator. The connection? Changes in ocean temperature affect migrating birds, which are major contributors to the spread and mixing of flu viruses. An earlier study had…