China’s first deep-sea multi-functional scientific investigation and cultural relic archaeological vessel set to be completed in 2025

Construction on China's first deep-sea multi-functional scientific investigation and cultural relic archaeological vessel officially began in Nansha, Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province on Sunday. The ship is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2025, CCTV reported on Monday. According to the report, the ship has a total design length of approximately 103 ... Read more

Five things to know about Zika

The mysteries of the Zika virus are slowly but surely succumbing to the scientific method. Last week, scientists revealed the virus’ structure, gleaned further insight into its ties to the birth defect microcephaly and found out just how little some people seem to know about Zika. Public health researchers at Harvard University released the results ... Read more

Sounds from gunshots may help solve crimes

The surveillance video shows a peaceful city streetscape: People walking, cars driving, birds chirping. “Then, abruptly, there’s the sound of gunfire,” said electrical engineer Robert Maher. “A big bang followed by another bang.” Witnesses saw two shooters facing off, a few meters apart — one aiming north, the other south. But no one knew who shot first. ... Read more

Anesthesia steals consciousness in stages

The brain doesn’t really go out like a light when anesthesia kicks in. Nor does neural activity gradually dim, a new study in monkeys reveals. Rather, intermittent flickers of brain activity appear as the effects of an anesthetic take hold. Some synchronized networks of brain activity fall out of step as the monkeys gradually drift ... Read more

Female fish have a fail-safe for surprise sperm attacks

Some guys really know how to kill a moment. Among Mediterranean fish called ocellated wrasse (Symphodus ocellatus), single males sneak up on mating pairs in their nest and release a flood of sperm in an effort to fertilize some of the female’s eggs. But female fish may safeguard against such skullduggery through their ovarian fluid, ... Read more

Evidence for new form of matter-antimatter asymmetry observed

Like two siblings with divergent personalities, a type of particle has shown signs of behaving differently than its antimatter partner. It’s the first time evidence of matter-antimatter differences have been detected in decays of a baryon — a category of particle that includes protons and neutrons. Such matter-antimatter discrepancies are key to explaining how the ... Read more

How a ring of mountains forms inside a crater

Building mountains in minutes requires deep rocks and a big bang. Rings of mountainous peaks sit inside large impact craters, but scientists weren’t sure how these features formed. One explanation proposed that these mountains form from deep rocks jolted to the surface by the impact. Another theory suggested that uplift caused surface rocks to congregate ... Read more

Scientific success depends on finding light in darkness

Without light, we cannot see. That’s why “dark galaxies” have eluded astronomers for so long. Two years ago, these star-starved entities were virtually unknown. But scientists now have better ways of seeing, even in dim conditions. New telescopes that can detect the faint light from these mysterious galaxies have enabled scientists to chalk up a ... Read more

Ebola vaccine proves effective, final trial results show

An experimental Ebola vaccine has triumphed in West Africa. Of 5,837 people in Guinea who received a single shot of the vaccine, rVSV-ZEBOV, in the shoulder, none became infected with the virus 10 to 84 days after vaccination. That’s “100% protection,” researchers report December 22 in the Lancet. World Health Organization researcher Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo ... Read more

Ancient oddball invertebrate finds its place on the tree of life

Hyoliths are evolutionary misfits no more. This class of ancient marine invertebrates has now been firmly pegged as lophophorates, a group whose living members include horseshoe worms and lamp shells, concludes an analysis of more than 1,500 fossils, including preserved soft tissue. The soft-bodied creatures, encased in conical shells, concealed U-shaped guts and rings of ... Read more