The Journal of Neuroscience recently featured a debate over the hypothesis that Parkinson’s disease is, at least in some cases, caused by prions – misfolded proteins that spread from neuron to neuron. A prion is a protein that has taken on an abnormal shape and that can spread itself by making other, healthy molecules of the same protein adopt its abnormal configuration. The best-known prion disease is variant CJD aka “mad cow disease”, but some researchers believe that ...read more

The LIGO detector in Livingston, Louisiana. (Credit: LIGO Collaboration) The massive collaboration of scientists that’s hunting gravitational waves—with a lot of success—is set to make another big announcement on Monday. A flurry of press releases this week have teased the news, which is set to break on Oct. 16, although they’ve been short on details. At 10 a.m. Eastern, a team from the groundbreaking gravitational wave detector LIGO will make an announcement at th ...read more

Drones are helping scientists understand Earth’s lava flows, which could tell us more about ancient Mars. (Credit: Shuttershock) Lava flow: an unstoppable destructive force that burns pretty much everything in its path. When a volcano erupts, it’s important that people in surrounding areas have adequate time to evacuate. To provide those crucial extra hours, or minutes, researchers are using drones to improve hazard predictions, and perhaps tell us something about life on ancient Ma ...read more

Oh, artificial intelligence, how quickly you grow up. Just three months ago you were learning to walk, and we watched you take your first, flailing steps. Today, you’re out there kicking a soccer ball around and wrestling. Where does the time go? Indeed, for the past few months we’ve stood by like proud parents and watched AI reach heartwarming little milestones. In July, you’ll recall, Google’s artificial intelligence company in the United Kingdom, DeepMind, developed a ...read more

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Artist’s interpretation of a cancer cell. (Credit: Shutterstock) Bugula neritina is a rather inconspicuous marine organism. It looks like purplish seaweed, but it’s actually a branching colony of individual, tentacled zooids (the technical term for individuals in a colonial invertebrate) that resemble badminton shuttlecocks. It’s abundant, invasive and widely viewed as a pest as it accumulates on ships, dock sides, buoys and intake valves. It might also contain a cure to some ...read more

The IQOS smokeless tobacco product. (Credit: SimonDes/Philip Morris International) Smoking: It’s bad for you. Take the smoke out of smoking, though, and you might be on to something. That, at least, is the thought process behind newly-emerging smokeless forms of nicotine, the most prominent right now being e-cigarettes. A vape pen just doesn’t deliver the same sweet rush of nicotine and the satisfying “throat hit” smokers crave, though, leaving tobacco companies searchi ...read more

Sea urchins living in the Mediterranean have a new enemy: the bearded fireworm. This toothless but determined predator has found a way to devour sea urchins, despite their spines and stony shells. And the worms’ appetite for urchins might remake entire ocean ecosystems. The bearded fireworm, Hermodice carunculata, grows up to a foot long and is fuzzy, not in the cute way but in the “DO NOT TOUCH” way. The white tufts that run along the worm’s bod ...read more

(Credit: Disney/Giphy) Bambi: A classic children’s movie about a happy-go-lucky fawn that ultimately takes a turn for the worse. Unfortunately, real life is no walk in the park for young deer either. Early in a fawn’s life, its mother will leave for extended periods to forage for food and ensure predators stay at bay, wildlife experts say. But nesting in farm fields can be deadly for fawns, as farmers often don’t see them before it’s far too late. &nb ...read more