An ancient ballistic tongue

Plus: Platypuses get even weirder, possible 'elves' on Jupiter, quests to save rare plants and more

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11/08/2020 Dear Science News readers, As our understanding of the human genome improves, scientists are challenging the overreliance on the mostly European human reference genome. But it's not clear how to solve the problem. We have started a project to delve into some of these ethical issues. We'd love your feedback on these questions in the survey linked below. The results will be used to guide future stories on the topic. Take our survey Thank you for your input and for supporting Science News.   —The Science News staff A blue-green glow adds to platypuses’ long list of bizarre features The discovery of platypuses’ fluorescent fur has researchers wondering if the trait is more widespread among mammals than anyone has realized. Read More How passion, luck and sweat saved some of North America’s rarest plants As the list of plants no longer found in the wild grows, botanists and conservationists search for signs of hope — and sometimes get lucky. Read More An ancient amphibian is the oldest known animal with a slingshot tongue A tiny amphibian that lived 99 million years ago waited for invertebrate prey before snatching them with a swift, shooting tongue. Read More A smartwatch app alerts users with hearing loss to nearby sounds With a new smartwatch app, users who are deaf or hard of hearing can get alerts that an alarm is going off or someone is knocking at the door. Read More The Milky Way makes little galaxies bloom, then snuffs them out When dwarf galaxies cross the Milky Way’s frontier, our galaxy compresses their gas, sparking star birth, but then robs them of their star-making gas. 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 COVID-19’s death rate in the U.S. could spike as new cases soar Effective treatments are one possible reason the mortality rate from COVID-19 fell over the summer. Rising cases could reverse the trend.   Read More ‘Deaths of despair’ are rising. It’s time to define despair A sense of defeat, not mental ailments, may be derailing the lives of less-educated people in the United States. Read More A fish’s fins may be as sensitive to touch as fingertips Newfound parallels between fins and fingers suggest that touch-sensing limbs evolved early, setting the stage for a shared way to sense surroundings. Read More Female big-game hunters may have been surprisingly common in the ancient Americas A Peruvian burial that indicates that women speared large prey as early as 9,000 years ago sheds new light on gender roles of ancient hunter-gatherers. Read More Jupiter may host atmospheric ‘sprites’ or ‘elves’ never seen beyond Earth For the first time, NASA’s Juno spacecraft may have spied the bright, superfast light show on another world. 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