The brain is like an ecosystem—thousands of different types of cells connect to form one big, interdependent web. And just as biologists document species of plants and animals, neuroscientists have spent decades identifying different “species” of neurons and other brain cells that support them. They’ve found more than 3,000 cell types spread throughout the brain,…
MILAN — Sicily’s Mount Etna put on a fiery show Monday, sending a cloud of smoke and ash several kilometers (miles) into the air, but officials said the activity posed no danger to the population. The level of alert due to the volcanic activity was raised at the Catania airport, but no immediate interruptions were…
Often likened to mermaids in media reports and popular culture, South Korea’s famed Haenyeo (“sea women”) spend much of the day underwater, diving without scuba gear to collect abalone, octopus, kelp and other prized seafood. Admired both culturally and scientifically, they have been plunging into the frigid waters of Jeju Island since as early as…
Black Death Plague That Killed Millions Became Less Fatal because of This Genetic Tweak Reducing the copies of one gene in the bubonic plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, made it less deadly but potentially more transmissible By Rachel Fieldhouse & Nature magazine Scanning electron micrograph of Yersinia pestis, which causes bubonic plague, on proventricular spines of a Xenopsylla…
An early-season heat wave has scorched much of the West with dangerously hot conditions, prompting an extreme heat warning that extended from Friday to late Saturday. Triple-digit highs were widespread across southern Nevada, and temperatures over 115 degrees were expected in Death Valley. Such extreme heat weeks before the official start of summer added urgency…
President Donald Trump said Saturday he is pulling the nomination of billionaire Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator, citing “a thorough review of prior associations.” Trump, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, did not elaborate on what associations he was referring to. “After a thorough review of prior associations, I am…
Scientists say that they have formulated a way to help people in stressful and demanding work environments track their brainwaves and brain usage — an electronic tattoo device, or “e-tattoo,” on the person’s face. In a study posted in the science journal Device, the team of researchers wrote that they found e-tattoos to be a…
A team of scientists at the Institute for Advanced Study School of Natural Sciences in Princeton, New Jersey, might have found a new dwarf planet, potentially leading to more evidence of a theoretical super-planet. The scientists announced in a news release that they have found a trans-Neptune Object(TNO), code-named 2017OF201, located past the icy and desolate…
Sahara Dust Clouds Are Heading to Florida and Beyond Clouds of dust blown off the Saharan Desert into the southeastern U.S. could affect local weather and make sunrises and sunsets particularly vivid By Meghan Bartels edited by Dean Visser Each year, seasonal winds carry tens of millions of tons of Saharan dust across the Atlantic…
California House Democrats on Friday demanded that the National Weather Service restore some terminated workers and begin hiring new forecasters after it halted around-the-clock operations at its Sacramento and Hanford weather forecasting offices, among others. In a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Laura Grimm, the acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric…