Life 19 January 2020 By Shreya Dasgupta Orangutans in the wild in Kalimantan, the Indonesia part of the island of BorneoMarc AncrenazThe number of Bornean orangutans is dwindling, and there is little evidence that efforts to relocate them from risky areas or rehabilitate those once held captive actually works to bolster their population. Between 2007…
By Alice Klein Looking smartHuan Cong, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, ChinaChemists have constructed a bow tie-shaped molecule that changes colour under different conditions. It could be used to monitor toxic chemicals in air. Huan Cong at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry in China and his colleagues assembled the substance, which they…
Physics 17 January 2020 By Layal Liverpool Chemical bonding is one of chemistry’s most fundamental conceptsToshiyuki Shirai/EyeEm/Getty ImagesA chemical bond between two metal atoms has been filmed breaking and forming for the first time – something scientists say they only dreamed of seeingA chemical bond between two atoms has been recorded breaking and forming for…
Health 17 January 2020 By Layal Liverpool We don’t know why some people who have allergies lose their sense of smellRuslan Nassyrov / Alamy Stock PhotoMice have tens of thousands of chemical sensing nose cells that can cause an allergic reaction. Researchers say this discovery could help us understand how the immune system reacts to…
Space 17 January 2020 By Donna Lu Xie Gengxin and a replica of his lunar gardenDonna LuChina’s Chang’e 4 lunar lander captivated global attention when a cotton seed on board became the first plant ever to germinate on another world – and now the engineer behind this moon garden has revealed just how it was…
Health | Comment 17 January 2020 By Clare Wilson Gwyneth Paltrow is the owner of alternative health company GoopAdam Rose/NetflixPsychic readings, energy healing and vampire facials are just a few of the adventures had by actor and alternative health guru Gwyneth Paltrow and her team in her forthcoming Netflix series The Goop Lab. Goop, Paltrow’s…
By Jessica Hamzelou Benzodiazepine drugs tend to be prescribed for anxietySasimoto/iStockphoto/Getty ImagesBenzodiazepine drugs are prescribed at about 66 million doctor appointments a year in the US, according to a report by the US National Center for Health Statistics. This means that for every 100 adults that visit an office-based doctor over the course of a…
Environment 16 January 2020 By Leah Crane Microsoft aims to remove more carbon from the environment than it emits by 2030Robert Evans/Alamy Stock PhotoMicrosoft has big climate ambitions. On 16 January, the company announced an initiative to remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it and its suppliers emit annually by 2030. Company officials…
Technology 16 January 2020 By Jason Arunn Murugesu Flying highLentink Lab/Stanford UniversityA robot that resembles a pigeon and can make tight turns like real birds may point to the future of aerospace engineering – a continuously morphing wing. Understanding exactly how birds fly has always been tricky, because individual wings are made up of multiple…
By Michael Le Page Fossils of trilobites, one of the species diminished but not lost during the Devonian periodKevin Schafer/Alamy Stock PhotoThe best record yet of how biodiversity changed in the distant past has been created with the help of machine learning and a supercomputer. Among other things, it confirms that one of the five…
