Science News. Cannibalism

Cannibalism in Colonial America comes to life

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hunger turned horrifying among Colonial-era residents of Virginia’s Jamestown settlement. An analysis of a partial skull from a teenage girl unearthed last summer indicates that she was cannibalized after she died, scientists reported May 1 at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. 05.01.13 | more >>

Counting cracks in glass gives speed of projectile

A shattered windshield has a story to tell. The key to hearing it is counting the cracks.

The number of cracks that emerge in a plate of glass or Plexiglas relates to the speed of the object that broke it, researchers demonstrate April 26 in Physical Review Letters . This simple relationship could prove useful for forensic scientists , archeologists and even astronomers. 05.01.13 | more >>

Recreating the eye of the fly

NEWS IN BRIEF Tiny camera with 180 linked lenses captures panoramic views, could provide surveillance 05.01.13 | more >>

Fossil illuminates ancestry of swifts and hummingbirds

NEWS IN BRIEF Diminutive size came before specialized wings 05.01.13 | more >>

Genetic fossils betray hepatitis B's ancient roots

A virus that causes liver diseases in people may have infected birds that shared the planet with dinosaurs.

More than 82 million years ago, a hepatitis B virus infected an ancient bird and got stuck in its genome, a molecular version of a tar pit, researchers report April 30 in Nature Communications. Using fragments of DNA found in modern-day zebra finches, evolutionary biologist Alexander Suh and colleagues at the University of Münster in Germany pieced together a complete genome of the ancient ... 04.30.13 | more >>

Snapshots reveal details of Saturn's gigantic hurricane

NEWS IN BRIEF Storm dwarfs anything on Earth 04.30.13 | more >>

Bees need honey's natural pharmaceuticals

Honey is more than a sweet treat to bees. It turns out that it doses honeybees with certain compounds that switch on their detox defenses. 04.29.13 | more >>

Brain measurements predict math progress with tutoring

A child who is good at learning math may literally have a head for numbers.

Kids’ brain structures and wiring are associated with how much their math skills improve after tutoring , researchers report April 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 04.29.13 | more >>

LHC detects asymmetry in particle's decay

NEWS IN BRIEF While interesting, strange B meson's preference for matter over antimatter isn't enough to explain universe's existence 04.26.13 | more >>

HIV vaccine trial stopped

NEWS IN BRIEF Shots-plus-booster strategy deemed ineffective in preventing infection 04.26.13 | more >>

Hookah smoking delivers carcinogens and carbon monoxide

The tobacco and fruit mixture smoked in public hookah bars might be considerably more dangerous than its pleasant scent would suggest. An analysis of people who smoked from water pipes three times a day finds that the pipes deliver more carbon monoxide and benzene, a carcinogen, than does smoking half a pack of cigarettes daily. 04.26.13 | more >>

Signs of culture in whales and monkeys

The phrase “monkey see, monkey do” applies to humpback whales. Vervet monkeys and humpback whales both copy behaviors from their neighbors, researchers report April 25 in Science . The two studies suggest that, like humans, some wild animals pick up new habits from each other. 04.25.13 | more >>

So far, the great tit has coped with climate change

Though climate change has knocked little birds called great tits out of sync with their chicks’ food supply, the birds are maintaining their population numbers, a new study finds. But the way the tits cope may give them only a temporary reprieve. 04.25.13 | more >>

Maya civilization's roots may lie in ritual

Ancient Maya civilization was born of public rituals devised several thousand years ago as a result of mingling among groups spread across what’s now southern Mexico and Guatemala. 04.25.13 | more >>

Web searches for money words anticipate market moves

The jittery, sweaty-palmed fear of losing money in the stock market leaves a signature in Google search data. Upticks in web searches for finance-related words such as debt , stocks and portfolio are good indicators of an impending downturn in the market, a new study shows. People enter such search terms less frequently before market gains, researchers report April 25 in Scientific Reports . 04.25.13 | more >>

Comet's water still hanging around on Jupiter

NEWS IN BRIEF Shoemaker-Levy 9 supplied almost all of aqueous part of the planet's upper atmosphere 04.24.13 | more >>

Birds may have had to crouch before they could fly

NEWS IN BRIEF Fossils of avian ancestors show progressive redistribution of weight toward front 04.24.13 | more >>

Early Earth's chlorine blown away by giant impacts

Earthlings may owe a debt of gratitude to the enormous miniplanets that smashed into the planet in its youth. Such collisions might have knocked away much of the supply of chlorine concentrated on the planet’s surface, geochemists propose. Had that loss not occurred, the world’s oceans would have been too salty for complex life to thrive, they suggest. 04.24.13 | more >>

Mutation makes H5N1 flu lose its grip

A mutation that helped make a laboratory version of the H5N1 bird flu transmissible through the air nearly obliterates the ability of the virus to latch onto avian cells. At the same time, the mutation slightly boosts the virus’s ability to infect human cells, an international team of researchers reports April 24 in Nature . 04.24.13 | more >>

Remnants of Earth's crust survive in the planet's interior

NEWS IN BRIEF Slab unperturbed in the mantle for billions of years before resurfacing 04.24.13 | more >>

Why corals do calisthenics

VIEW THE VIDEO Like hyperactive flowers, xeniid corals open and then clench their little branched tops every few seconds much of the day and night. What makes these coral calisthenics worthwhile, experiments now suggest, could be the way they mix and freshen water to improve coral nutrition. 04.22.13 | more >>