Adrenaline Doesn't Actually Cause the Fight-or-Flight Response, New Study Says
discovermagazine.com – Instead, the feeling comes from our bones.
Source: Julian Meyer Berger, et al. Mediation of the Acute Stress Response by the Skeleton. Cell Metabolism, 2019.
Physicists Finally Nail the Proton’s Size, and Hope Dies
quantamagazine.org – A new measurement appears to have eliminated an anomaly that had captivated physicists for nearly a decade.
Source: N. Bezginov, et al. A measurement of the atomic hydrogen Lamb shift and the proton charge radius. Science, 2019.
New prosthetic legs let amputees feel their foot and knee in real-time
engadget.com – Researchers modified an off-the-shelf prosthetic to help amputees ‘feel’ their new leg.
Source: Francesco Maria Petrini, et al. Sensory feedback restoration in leg amputees improves walking speed, metabolic cost and phantom pain. Nature Medicine, 2019.
This Volcanic Eruption Set Off a Phytoplankton Bloom
nytimes.com – Lava from Kilauea in Hawaii flowed into the Pacific last year and pushed nutrients to the surface. The result was a banquet for light-loving microbes.
Source: Samuel T. Wilson, et al. Kīlauea lava fuels phytoplankton bloom in the North Pacific Ocean. Science, 2019.
Working memory may play role in teen car crash risk
futurity.org – "Not all young drivers crash. So we thought, what is it about those who are crashing? It could be related to variability in working memory development."
Source: Elizabeth A. Walshe, et al. Working Memory Development and Motor Vehicle Crashes in Young Drivers. JAMA Network Open, 2019.
Is Vaping Really Safe?
livescience.com – Just because e-cigarettes might be safer than tobacco cigarettes doesn't make them safe, an expert says.
Source: Jennifer E. Layden, et al. Pulmonary Illness Related to E-Cigarette Use in Illinois and Wisconsin — Preliminary Report. New England Journal of Medicine, 2019.
Behold Mortichnia, the Death Trail of an Ancient Worm
nytimes.com – A 500-million-year-old fossil offered a rare treasure: the imprint of an animal that literally died in its tracks.
Source: Scott D. Evans, James G. Gehling, Mary L. Droser. Slime travelers: Early evidence of animal mobility and feeding in an organic mat world. Geobiology, 2019.
Denisovan fossil finger points to the timing of Neanderthal evolution
arstechnica.com – Anthropologists put a finger on differences between Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Source: E. Andrew Bennett, et al. Morphology of the Denisovan phalanx closer to modern humans than to Neanderthals. Science Advances, 2019.
Astronomers discover hungry black hole that demands three square meals a day
digitaltrends.com – We all know we should be getting three square meals a day. And now astronomers have found a black hole which seems to share this preference -- it consumes material on a regular schedule once every nine hours. Researchers are wondering why it emits bursts of X-rays which repeat in a regular pattern.
Source: G. Miniutti, et al. Nine-hour X-ray quasi-periodic eruptions from a low-mass black hole galactic nucleus. Nature, 2019.
'Lovers of Modena' Buried Hand-in-Hand Turn Out to Be Men
livescience.com – They could have been war buddies or cousins, or possibly in a romantic relationship.
Source: Federico Lugli, et al. Enamel peptides reveal the sex of the Late Antique ‘Lovers of Modena’. Scientific Reports, 2019.
