What does 'brain dead' actually mean?

Plus: Stunning 'blue whirl' flames, rituals in the COVID-19 age, the oldest grass beds and more

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08/16/2020 4 reasons you shouldn’t trash your neck gaiter based on the new mask study “The headline that neck gaiters can be worse is totally inaccurate.”  Read More Climate change, not hunters, may have killed off woolly rhinos Ancient DNA indicates that numbers of woolly rhinos held steady long after people arrived on the scene. Read More Newly discovered cells in mice can sense four of the five tastes Some cells in mice can sense bitter, sweet, sour and umami. Without the cells, some flavor signals don’t get to the ultimate tastemaker — the brain. Read More Four types of flames join forces to make this eerie ‘blue whirl’ Pinning down the structure of the “amazingly complex” blaze could help scientists control it. Read More Why do we miss the rituals put on hold by the COVID-19 pandemic? Even solitary rituals bind us to our groups and help calm anxieties. What happens when those traditions are upended? Read More Science News is a nonprofit. We depend on our readers to support our journalism. You can help by subscribing for as little as $25. SUBSCRIBE NOW Paradoxically, white dwarf stars shrink as they gain mass Observations of thousands of white dwarf stars have confirmed a decades-old theory about the relationship between their masses and sizes. Read More The oldest known grass beds from 200,000 years ago included insect repellents Found in South Africa, 200,000-year-old bedding remnants included fossilized grass, bug-repelling ash and once aromatic camphor leaves. Read More To save Appalachia’s endangered mussels, scientists hatched a bold plan Biologists have just begun to learn whether their bold plan worked to save the golden riffleshell, a freshwater mussel teetering on the brink of extinction. Read More Hurricanes have names. Some climate experts say heat waves should, too Heat waves kill more people in the United States than any other weather-related disaster.  Read More New guidance on brain death could ease debate over when life ends When your brain stops working — completely and irreversibly — you’re dead. But drawing the line between life and brain death isn’t always easy. Read More Privacy policy  |  Update Profile  | Manage Subscriptions  |   Unsubscribe This email was sent by: Society for Science & the Public 1719 N Street NW Washington, DC, 20036, US