Physicists working with the world’s biggest dark-matter detector—a behemoth in the United States known as LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ)—released their first results today. They see no sign of what they’re searching for, so-called weakly interacting massive particles or WIMPs. Still, the result is sparking interest among particle physicists, as the nearly 4-decade-long search for...
In 1960, a group of dentists published a curious study: when they played music for their patients during operations, the people experienced less pain . Some didn’t even need nitrous oxide or local anesthesia to get through unpleasant procedures. Now a new paper untangles why this works—at least in mice. It’s an “elegant” study, says Eduardo...
In the rolling hills of Argentina’s Patagonian Desert, Juan Canale struck paleontological gold. Within half the length of a soccer pitch, his team discovered five dinosaur skeletons, including a new species that’s a Tyrannosaurus rex doppelgänger—the third known giant dinosaur to evolve stubby arms and cartoonishly large heads. In a new study ,...
New nonprofit pursues global survey of microbes that help plants thrive
ECOLOGY Scientists find new hummingbird colors The plumage of hummingbirds has more color diversity than the feathers of all other birds combined, a recent study finds. Researchers from Yale University collected feathers from specimens of 114 hummingbird species and, using a spectrometer, documented the wavelengths of light they reflected. These...