Science

Cricket frogs belly flop their way across water

Mysterious ribbons of grayish white have been spotted woven through the northern lights. New images reveal that these ghostly glows can appear tucked within or curled up beside red and green auroras. But the pale lights are not auroras themselves, researchers reported December 30 in Nature Communications. Instead, they may arise through a similar process…

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD. — A bright blip in a distant galaxy may link two mysterious categories of cosmic flares. The event, which astronomers playfully call the Platypus, could also offer a new way to understand the origins of supermassive black holes that reside at the centers of most galaxies. The brilliant burst, spotted in a…

Fever’s link with specialized immunity is surprisingly ancient

The Los Angeles wildfires were still burning when scientists started scouting the freshly charred burn scars to search for signs of another danger that’s yet to come — roaring torrents of rock and mud and water that can sweep downhill with deadly momentum. Triggered by intense bouts of rainfall, these debris flows — as well…

Evolving a dig-in-the-dark mole lifestyle comes with radical anatomical changes, making it hard even to guess the animal’s closest relatives. That’s why the true identity of Australia’s most enigmatic and cryptic mammal, the marsupial mole, has been called into question for decades. The two fit-in-your-hand Notoryctes species are elusive. “I’ve never handled, or even seen,…