Electric Countdown Tells Sleeping Spores When to Wake Up
Do sleeping spores dream of electric sheep?
By Elise Cutts in Scientific American
December 17, 2022
Glacial Ice Offers Polar Bears a Precarious Climate Refuge
An isolated polar bear population in southeastern Greenland survives in fjords, despite spotty sea ice. But this pocket of bears is not a sign of how the species could be saved.
By Elise Cutts in Eos
December 9, 2022
Microbes could potentially survive on Mars for 280 million years
New research suggests a tough bacteria called D. radiodurans could long withstand harsh martian radiation in a state of stasis under the surface.
By Elise Cutts in Astronomy
November 29, 2022
Ancient white dwarf hosts planetary graveyard
Scientists have discovered one of the oldest planetary graveyards in the Milky Way: a cool white dwarf “polluted” with rocky debris.
By Elise Cutts in Sky and Telescope
November 10, 2022
Shields up: Red dwarf worlds adapt to hostile systems
Worlds around red dwarf stars might build an ozone “shield” in response to stellar flares.
By Elise Cutts in Sky and Telescope
November 8, 2022
Here’s how mysterious last-resort antibiotics kill bacteria
To kill drug-resistant bacteria, “last-resort” antibiotics borrow a tactic from Medusa’s playbook: petrification.
By Elise Cutts in Science News
November 8, 2022
Did a chaotic climate drive human evolution?
A new 620,000-year climate record from East Africa reveals dramatic swings between wet and dry conditions that may have influenced human evolution.
By Elise Cutts in Eos
November 7, 2022
Warmer winters keep crops sleepy into spring, hurting yield
Annual crops go dormant during winter. Frosty temperatures cue them to wake up—but the warmer winters brought on by climate change scramble the cold signal, hurting yield.
By Elise Cutts in Eos
October 21, 2022
Rising Salinity Threatens Rice Crop on Southeast Asia’s Sinking Coastline (Feature)
Worldwide, coastal saltwater is creeping farther and farther inland, tainting the land and water with enough salt to kill crops. In Asia, saltwater intrusion is making it nearly impossible for some farmers to grow the region’s staple food.
By Elise Cutts in Voice of America
September 3, 2022
Rising Salinity Threatens Rice Crop on Southeast Asia’s Sinking Coastline (TV)
Worldwide, coastal saltwater is creeping farther and farther inland, tainting the land and water with enough salt to kill crops. In Asia, saltwater intrusion is making it nearly impossible for some farmers to grow the region’s staple food. Videographer: Sun Narin, Vietnamese Stringer in Vietnam
By Elise Cutts in Voice of America
September 2, 2022
What Is a ‘Vaccine-Derived’ Poliovirus?
VOA spoke with three polio experts about vaccine-derived polioviruses and the oral polio vaccine. Here’s what you need to know.
By Elise Cutts in Voice of America
August 16, 2022
Century-Old TB Vaccine Boosts Babies' Front-Line Immune Defenses
The widely used tuberculosis vaccine also fends off a slew of unrelated infectious diseases, and its immune boost can protect newborns for more than a year, researchers in Australia have found.
By Elise Cutts in Voice of America
August 16, 2022