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During Arctic winter, the sun disappears below the horizon for long weeks of “polar night.” But new research shows that tiny crustaceans in the Arctic Ocean somehow maintain their daily rhythms during these extended periods of darkness. Most living creatures use sunlight to time their biological processes and behaviors. This becomes a challenge when there is effectively no sunrise or sunset—and even more so under the sea, where water dims what little light there is....

Artificially boosting the body’s immune response against cancer is the most exciting advance in the treatment of tumors in the past couple of years. But as the jam-packed sessions at a recent scientific conference in New York City made clear, a lot of questions remain to be answered before anyone can declare victory in the war on cancer. Among them: What is the best way to kick the immune system into action?...

Duplication of a single gene — and too much of the corresponding protein in brain cells — causes mice to have seizures and display manic-like behavior, a study has found. But a widely used drug reversed the symptoms, suggesting that it could also help some people with hyperactivity who do not respond to common treatments. Smooth functioning at the synapses, the junctions between brain cells, is crucial to functions that control everything from social etiquette to everyday decision-making....

Just as shrinking transistors makes computers more powerful, brains with smaller components could in principle pack in more power and become faster. The human neuron, however—and in particular, its long “tail,” called an axon—may already be at (or close to) their physical limit. Axons are the nervous system’s telegraph wires, enabling neurons to form networks. When a neuron fires, it sends an electrical signal down its axon, which then stimulates other neurons....

For the third year in a row, the carbon dioxide emissions that drive climate change worldwide have been level. The emissions pause is particularly noteworthy because it comes despite a growing global economy, the International Energy Agency announced. That’s a sign that carbon emissions are “decoupling” from the economy as other sources of energy come online. Researchers measured 32.1 metric gigatons of CO2 emissions in 2016, the same as in the previous two years....

Spending cuts approved by the House would end America’s reign as a scientific leader if they are enacted into law, a former Bush administration Energy Department official said yesterday. “Left intact, the massive cuts in research contained in the bill passed on 19 February would effectively end America’s legendary status as the leader of the worldwide scientific community,” Raymond Orbach wrote in an editorial published online by the journal Science. The continuing budget legislation passed by the House last week would slash the budgets of federal environment, energy and science agencies compared to 2010 spending levels – cutting $3 billion from U....

Early Homo sapiens wasn’t acquainted with Einstein’s general theory of relativity, yet anyone in a physics class today is expected to understand its basic tenets. “How is it that our ancient brains can learn new sciences and represent abstract concepts?” asks Marcel Just, a neuroscientist at Carnegie Mellon University. In a study published in June in Psychological Science, Just and his colleague Robert Mason found that thinking about physics prompts common brain-activation patterns and that these patterns are everyday neural capabilities—used for processing rhythm and sentence structure, for example—that were repurposed for learning abstract science....

By Karen BrooksAUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A winter storm that some forecasters say is the worst to hit the United States in years slammed the nation’s midsection early Friday, snarling travel and knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of customers.The line of ice, snow and freezing temperatures stretched northeast from the Texas-Mexico border to the Ohio Valley, with the worst of the precipitation starting near Dallas and punching through Arkansas and western Kentucky, according to forecasters at AccuWeather....

It’s not necessary to deal with the neighbors at all. If T is where the bisector of angle QYZ intersects the bisector of QXR, then it will also be the point where the bisector of YZR will intersect the bisector of QXR. Here is why: (i) The angle bisector of QYZ is the set of all points that are equidistant from YQ and YZ. (ii) The angle bisector of YZR is the set of all points that are equidistant from YZ and ZR....

The military relies heavily on helicopters in Afghanistan, where rough terrain can make it hard for airplanes to land and for troops and vehicles to travel on the ground. Unfortunately, the U.S. armed forces’ roughly 3,000 helicopters, which fly relatively slow and low to the ground, are easy targets for enemies with shoulder-launched missiles. Current state-of-the-art missile defenses, built originally for airplanes, cannot withstand the vibrations helicopters generate. But Mohammed N....

The U.S. can still meet its 2030 climate targets if Republicans are victorious on Election Day. That’s the message behind a new report by America is All In, a coalition of businesses and local leaders working to address rising temperatures. The analysis shows that expanded state, local and private sector climate actions combined with federal regulations and recently passed legislation would be enough to reach President Joe Biden’s pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030....

It was a dazzling death. Roughly 1.3 billion years ago a star exploded with such force that it was 50 times brighter than the hundred billion stars in its host galaxy combined. It was so bright that if it took place in the Andromeda Galaxy, it would be visible to the naked eye. The outburst, officially known as PTF10hgi, belongs to a rare class of explosions called “superluminous” supernovae, which can shine a hundred times brighter than typical ones....

By Virginia Gewin of Nature magazineHidden in the landscape of the fertile crescent of the Middle East, scientists say, lurk overlooked networks of small settlements that hold vital clues to ancient civilizations.Beyond the impressive mounds of earth, known as tells in Arabic, that mark lost cities, researchers have found a way to give archaeologists a broader perspective of the ancient landscape. By combining spy-satellite photos obtained in the 1960s with modern multispectral images and digital maps of Earth’s surface, the researchers have created a new method for mapping large-scale patterns of human settlement....

Some 23 million additional U.S. residents are expected to become more regular users of the U.S. health care system in the next several years, thanks to the passage of health care reform. Digitizing medical data has been touted as one way to help the already burdened system manage the surge in patients. But putting people’s health information in databases and online is going to do more than simply reduce redundancies. It is already shifting the very way we seek and receive health care....

A pair of physicists announced the discovery of a subatomic event so powerful that the researchers wondered if it was too dangerous to make public. The explosive event? The duo showed that two tiny particles known as bottom quarks could theoretically fuse together in a powerful flash. The result: a larger subatomic particle, a second, spare particle known as a nucleon, and a whole mess of energy spilling out into the universe....

A personal ad seeking the perfect vaccine might read: “Must confer strong immunity, quickly, with a single dose and minimal side effects. Should offer lasting protection, preferably for a lifetime.” Unfortunately, few vaccines would measure up. Many of them require multiple doses to get the immune system’s attention or periodic booster shots to refresh its memory. Others may elicit a partial immune response but fail to activate T cells, the powerful search-and-destroy soldiers of the immune system....

Eight thousand years ago small bands of seminomadic hunter-gatherers were the only human beings roaming Europe’s lush, green forests. Archaeological digs in caves and elsewhere have turned up evidence of their Mesolithic technology: flint-tipped tools with which they fished, hunted deer and aurochs (a now extinct species of ox), and gathered wild plants. Many had dark hair and blue eyes, recent genetic studies suggest, and the few skeletons unearthed so far indicate that they were quite tall and muscular....

John A. Graham, an astronomer with the Carnegie Institution of Washington, explains. Have you ever noticed how a coin at the bottom of a swimming pool seems to wobble from side to side? This phenomenon occurs because the water in the pool bends the path of light from the coin. Similarly, stars twinkle because their light has to pass through several miles of Earth’s atmosphere before it reaches the eye of an observer....

Before it exploded this spring “like a nuclear bomb,” as the mayor of West, Tex., put it, the West Fertilizer plant was an otherwise unremarkable piece of the American landscape. It sat just across from a subdivision in this town of 2,800 people. The West Intermediate School’s baseball diamond was close enough to deliver the occasional foul ball. Officially, the plant held 27 tons of anhydrous ammonia. It also held, out of sight and mind, 270 tons of explosive ammonium nitrate....

Much has been written about the Anthropocene—a proposed new division of geologic time in which humans are a dominant force for planetary change: When did it begin? How might it unfold? And can we, the supposed masters of Earth, actually use our powers to make our planet a better place? Understandably, most of the Anthropocene’s literature to date both in the popular press and in peer-reviewed publications has been decidedly Earth-centric....