The coronavirus’s delta variant is different from earlier strains of the virus in worrying ways, health officials are discovering. And those differences may mean a return to some of the restrictions that vaccinated people thought were in the past. The variant is not only more contagious than earlier strains, it
Category: Science
A skeleton from Peru vies for the title of oldest known shark attack victim
When news broke that the oldest known case of a person killed by a shark involved a member of Japan’s Jōmon culture around 3,000 years ago, two researchers took special notice (SN: 7/23/21). Back in 1976, bioarchaeologist Robert Benfer of the University of Missouri in Columbia and Harvard University anthropological
Viruses can kill wasp larvae that grow inside infected caterpillars
When parasitic wasps come calling, some caterpillars have a surprising ally: a viral infection. Insects called parasitoid wasps lay their eggs inside young moth larvae, turning the caterpillars into unwitting, destined-to-die incubators for possibly hundreds of wasp offspring. That’s bad news for viruses trying to use the caterpillars as replication
Dinosaur-killing asteroid may have made Earth’s largest ripple marks
The asteroid impact that slew the dinosaurs may have also indirectly sculpted the largest ripple marks ever found on Earth. A series of ridgelike structures more than three stories high and spaced nearly two Eiffel Towers apart appear to be buried about 1,500 meters beneath central Louisiana. The oversized features
Polar bears sometimes bludgeon walruses to death with stones or ice
Walruses, weighing as much as 1,300 kilograms with huge tusks and nearly impenetrable skulls, are almost impossible for a hungry polar bear to kill. But new research suggests that some polar bears have invented a work-around — bashing walruses on the head with a block of stone or ice.
If confirmed, tubes in 890-million-year-old rock may be the oldest animal fossils
Pale, wormlike tubes in 890-million-year old rock may be ancient sea sponges, a new study concludes. If confirmed, that controversial claim would push back the origin of the earliest sponges by about 350 million years and make the tiny squiggles the oldest known fossils of animals, by far. Crucially, these
Near-invincible tardigrades may see only in black and white
Next time you’re looking at a rainbow, be thankful you’re not a tardigrade. While the microscopic creatures, also known as water bears, are master survivors when it comes to radiation, space or extreme temperatures (SN: 7/14/17), they may lack one way to appreciate the world they live in: the ability
The tiny dot in this image may be the first look at exomoons in the making
New telescope images may provide the first view of moons forming outside the solar system. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile glimpsed a dusty disk of potentially moon-forming material around a baby exoplanet about 370 light-years from Earth. The Jupiter-like world is surrounded by enough material to make up
Why the CDC says it’s crucial to start wearing masks indoors again
Delta has changed the course of the pandemic in the United States yet again. After spurring a summer surge in COVID-19 cases, the more transmissible coronavirus variant is now driving federal health officials’ decision to recommend that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks again in indoor public places. That’s
How some lizards breathe underwater
Some anole lizards have a newfound superpower: They can breathe underwater by trapping air in a bubble on their snouts. What’s more, these reptiles can stay submerged for nearly 20 minutes by rebreathing exhaled air in the bubble, a new study shows. “As anyone who has encountered one of these