Vol. 203 No. 9
Read Digital Issue Archive Issues |
May 6, 2023 cover of Science News

Reviews & Previews

Science Visualized

Notebook

Features

More Stories from the May 6, 2023 issue

  1. An oil painting showing a woman holding the body of Jesus Christ while another woman holds his head and another his feet. There are several men standing around and looking at the scene. All are brightly dressed.
    Chemistry

    Here’s why some Renaissance artists egged their oil paintings

    Some Renaissance artists created eggs-quisite paintings by adding yolks to oil paints, which may have helped add texture and prevent yellowing.

    By Jude Coleman
  2. A close up photo of several red flour beetles sitting on a pile of white flour with specks of flour stuck to some of the beetles.
    Life

    How some beetles ‘drink’ water using their butts

    Red flour beetles, a major agricultural pest, suck water out of the air using special cells in their rear ends, a new study suggests.

    By Freda Kreier
  3. A MRI image of a brain shows regions of cerebrospinal fluid in blue.
    Neuroscience

    Scientists triggered the flow of spinal fluid in the awake brain

    If future studies confirm these waking waves wash away toxic proteins from the brain, the finding could lead to new treatments for brain disorders.

    By Simon Makin
  4. An SEM image of breast cancer cells.
    Health & Medicine

    A new battery starves cancer cells of oxygen in mice

    When a self-charging battery is placed on a mouse’s tumor and combined with anticancer drugs, it reduced tumor size by 90 percent.

    By Bethany Brookshire
  5. A close up photo of several leeches on a transparent background.
    Animals

    Freshwater leeches’ taste for snails could help control snail-borne diseases

    A freshwater leech species will eat snails, raising the possibility that leeches could be used to control snail-borne diseases that infect humans and livestock.

    By Bethany Brookshire
  6. An image of a Native American man standing next to a brown horse while other brown horses mill in the background.
    Anthropology

    Native Americans corralled Spanish horses decades before Europeans arrived

    Great Plains groups incorporated domestic horses into their cultures by the early 1600s, before Europeans moved north from Mexico.

    By Bruce Bower
  7. A photo from the ATLAS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.
    Physics

    The W boson might not be heavier than expected after all

    A new and improved look at the mass of the W boson is in close alignment with theory, but it doesn’t negate an earlier, controversial measurement.

    By James R. Riordon
  8. A photo of a painted lady butterfly resting on a lion paw print in the dirt.
    Animals

    The last leg of the longest butterfly migration has now been identified

    After a long journey across the Sahara, painted lady butterflies from Europe set up camp in central Africa to wait out winter and breed.

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús
  9. An underwater photo of two researchers diving beside a female whale shark.
    Oceans

    ‘Jet packs’ and ultrasounds could reveal secrets of pregnant whale sharks

    Only one pregnant whale shark has ever been studied. New underwater techniques using ultrasound and blood tests could change that.

    By Brianna Randall
  10. A photo of Aaron Judge swinging at a baseball with spectators out of focus in the background.
    Climate

    Baseball’s home run boom is due, in part, to climate change

    Higher air temperatures led to an average of 58 more home runs each MLB season from 2010 to 2019, a study shows.

    By Darren Incorvaia
  11. A photo of a brown bear walking through a field of green leaves and other plants with trees visible throughout.
    Animals

    Hibernating bears don’t get blood clots. Now scientists know why

    People who sit still for hours have an increased risk of blood clots, but hibernating bears and people with long-term immobility don’t. A key clotting protein appears to be the reason why.

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús
  12. Two photos of the same black hole in M87 side by side. The image on the left is the original and appears to be a fuzzy black center with a ring of orange around it. The image on the right is similar but clearly a dark circle in the middle with an orange ring around it.
    Astronomy

    The first black hole portrait got sharper thanks to machine learning

    A machine learning technique filled in data gaps in the image of M87’s black hole, resulting in a thinner ring.

    By Emily Conover
  13. A black sea cucumber (Holothuria leucospilota) expels a stringlike substance, called the Cuvierian organ, as a defense against predators like crabs, as shown in this artist’s illustration.
    Animals

    This sea cucumber shoots sticky tubes out of its butt. Its genes hint at how

    A new genetics study is providing a wealth of information about silky, sticky tubes, called the Cuvierian organ, that sea cucumbers use to tangle foes.

    By Darren Incorvaia
  14. An ultraviolet composite image of Saturn. The planet is seen in shades of blue with a white band towards the center at at the top.
    Planetary Science

    Saturn’s icy rings are probably heating its atmosphere, giving it an ultraviolet glow

    Detecting similar emission from a distant world could help astronomers find other planets that boast bright and beautiful rings.

    By Ken Croswell
  15. Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the moon in a spacesuit
    Space

    50 years ago, cosmic rays may have caused Apollo astronauts to see lights

    Apollo astronauts reported seeing flashes of light where there were none. Fifty years later, the flashes still mess with modern astronauts’ vision.

    By Helen Thompson