Archive: Mar 2020

  Spanish translation available here.

Researchers at UC Riverside have discovered the oldest ancestor of almost all animals, including humans. This worm fills in a long-missing gap of the evolutionary biology puzzle.

Testing shortages have it made it extremely difficult to track the spread of the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19. A new kind of test can reveal whether someone has ever had the infection, even if it was mild or asymptomatic.

Forgiveness is associated with humans, but may play an integral role in human-robot interactions. A study asks whether we can forgive a robot for commiting a crime. Debating forgiveness rather than punishment, the study adds another ethical dimension to…

by Ziqi Chen figures by Rebecca Senft We live in a universe of viruses. It is estimated that there are billions of types of viruses on earth, and ~320,000 types that infect mammals alone. Many viral species exist in our surrounding environment. As we…

by Stephanie Smelyansky figures by Jovana Andrejevic Nature knows to quit when it’s ahead–just take a look at the horseshoe crab. Since its origins 450 million years ago, the animal has remained relatively unchanged. This living fossil continues to…

Scientists have uncovered a new mechanism by which important components of cells can be damaged. Such a discovery could provide new insight into the biology of aging, cancer, and degeneration, as well as development of new drugs and strategies for food…

In order to combat the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, a group of scientists from MIT are using artificial intelligence to discover new and effective antibiotics. They were able to predict a powerful new antibiotic compound that is effective…

Engineers at Beihang University and Harvard's Wyss Institute use models to zero in on creating the perfect octopus tentacle for industrial gripping uses.

Data from the New Horizons probe, flying in the asteroid field far beyond Pluto, have finally been downloaded and analyzed. They challenge our previous views of the formation of the solar system.