Cells called astrocytes can independently promote longer or deeper sleep in mice
For something we spend one-third of our lives doing, we still understand remarkably little about how sleep works — for example, why can some people sleep deeply through any disturbance, while others regularly toss and turn for hours each night? And why do we all seem to need …
New analysis of strontium isotopes reveals how the carbon cycle responds to changing climate
A new analysis of strontium isotopes in marine sediments has enabled scientists to reconstruct fluctuations in ocean chemistry reflecting changing climate conditions over the past 35 million years.
Stars form in stellar eggs, cosmic clouds of gas and dust that collapse due to gravity
Astronomers have found stellar eggs containing baby stars around the center of the Milky Way galaxy. To make the discovery, the scientists used NSF’s Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Previous studies had suggested that the environment at the galaxy’s …
Scientists look for ways evolution fights disease-causing pathogens
Scientists have examined the immune system of an unusual group of mammals, which includes a small South American opossum, to find solutions that evolution has produced to fight disease-causing pathogens.
