Apollo astronaut Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, the only scientist to walk on the moon, collects samples during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. NASA’s new Artemis mission aims to return humans to the moon in 2024.
A perfect ending for the final Apollo — Science News , December 23, 1972
Project Apollo ended this week. The last moon men … returned to Earth … and splashed down on a target in the Pacific Dec. 19.… All of the surface and orbital instruments appear to be working with the exception of the surface gravimeter.… The geology investigation team summed it up this way: “Apollo 17 will be remembered as the most scientifically sophisticated, not as the last, manned lunar landing.”
The Apollo missions continue adding to our knowledge of the moon and Earth. Scientists have used lunar soil samples collected by Apollo astronauts to show that growing plants on the moon, while challenging, may be possible ( SN: 7/2/22, p. 4 ). In May, NASA researchers began scrutinizing untouched lunar rock and soil samples from the Apollo 17 mission for hints of past moon conditions and the chemicals crucial for life. Then in November, a new era of moon missions dawned with the launch of NASA’s Artemis I mission . NASA hopes to land humans on the moon in 2025 to pick up where Apollo 17 astronauts left off.
James Riordon is a freelance science writer who covers physics, math, astronomy and occasional lifestyle stories.
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Science News was founded in 1921 as an independent, nonprofit source of accurate information on the latest news of science, medicine and technology. Today, our mission remains the same: to empower people to evaluate the news and the world around them. It is published by the Society for Science, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education (EIN 53-0196483).
A natural mouse embryo (top) and synthetic mouse embryo (bottom) at about eight days of development show similar brain formation (bright pink and orange represent different regions in the brain).
COVID-19 may continue to dominate headlines, but this year’s biomedical advances weren’t all about “the Rona.” 2022 saw fruitful and seemingly fantastical research that could one day mean good news for patients.
Two reports this year revealed how to fabricate the early stages of mammalian life . With a bit of laboratory wizardry, scientists mingled mouse stem cells, which self-assembled to spawn what appears to be a kind of fledgling embryo — no egg or sperm required. As they grow, these stem cell–derived synthetic embryos can form proto hearts, brains and guts. But the similarity to natural mouse embryos fades quickly. The synthetic and natural versions match up for only about eight days of development. Still, studying similar clusters of human stem cells might one day offer a way to probe the development of human embryos without relying on the real thing.
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Scientists dropped an Epstein-Barr bombshell early this year when they suggested that the virus is the main cause of the neurodegenerative disease multiple sclerosis . Infection with the virus greatly upped the odds of later developing MS, an analysis of millions of U.S. military recruits found. The link between the virus and MS, which scientists had suspected but never outlined so clearly, might guide the way to potential MS treatments — or even, one day, vaccines to prevent the disease ( SN: 8/13/22, p. 14 ).
Researchers announced back in 2003 that they had read all the genetic info packed into strands of human DNA — the first sequence of the human genome. But that genome was not quite complete; some tangled-up lengths of DNA remained difficult to decipher. This year, a team tied up the loose ends. In March, the researchers reported a new and improved human genome — this time, complete from end to end ( SN: 4/23/22, p. 6 ).
Artificial intelligence has taken structural biology to warp speed. A deep-learning program called AlphaFold has now predicted the 3-D shapes of more than 200 million proteins ( SN: 9/24/22, p. 16 ). Though the shapes are not lab-verified structures, the massive dataset could help researchers studying health and disease in all sorts of organisms, from humans to honeybees. Now, looking up a protein’s predicted structure is almost as easy as typing it into Google, according to the cofounder of the AI company that created AlphaFold.
Meghan Rosen is a staff writer who reports on the life sciences for Science News . She earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology with an emphasis in biotechnology from the University of California, Davis, and later graduated from the science communication program at UC Santa Cruz.
Our mission is to provide accurate, engaging news of science to the public. That mission has never been more important than it is today.
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Science News was founded in 1921 as an independent, nonprofit source of accurate information on the latest news of science, medicine and technology. Today, our mission remains the same: to empower people to evaluate the news and the world around them. It is published by the Society for Science, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education (EIN 53-0196483).
Previously excavated bodies of two ritually sacrificed Inca children, including this girl still wearing a ceremonial headdress, have yielded chemical clues to a beverage that may have been used to calm them in the days or weeks before being killed. The discovery ranked among Science News ‘ most-read stories of 2022.
Science News drew over 13 million visitors to our website this year. Here’s a recap of the most-read news stories and long reads of 2022.
The mummified remains of two Inca children ritually sacrificed more than 500 years ago contain chemical clues to their final days and weeks. On the journey to the Peruvian mountain where they were sacrificed, the children may have chewed coca leaves and drunk a beverage with antidepressant-like ingredients to soothe their nerves ( SN: 6/4/22, p. 10 ).
An unusual monkey first spotted six years ago appears to be a cross between a female silvered leaf monkey ( Trachypithecus cristatus ) and a male proboscis monkey ( Nasalis larvatus ). The possible cross-genera pairing has scientists worried because such matings are usually a sign that species are facing ecological pressures ( SN: 6/18/22, p. 11 ).
After Science News intern Anna Gibbs came down with COVID-19, she turned to health experts to figure out how to report her case to public health officials and how long she needed to isolate ( SN Online: 4/22/22 ).
Here’s more evidence that life’s precursors could have come from space. All five of the nucleobases that store information in DNA and RNA have been discovered in meteorites. This year, scientists reported detecting cytosine and thymine in fallen space rocks , completing the list ( SN: 6/4/22, p. 7 ).
For years, it was thought the human body can tolerate heat up to a “wet bulb” temperature — a measure combining humidity and air temperature — of 35° Celsius (95° Fahrenheit). But experiments hint that the threshold may be several degrees lower ( SN: 8/27/22, p. 6 ).
TikTok became one more way we tell stories, as we premiered our first TikTok video — a tribute to the “bambootula” tarantula. Find out what makes this spider so peculiar and discover other amazing science tidbits @sciencenewsofficial .
Just like doctors use X-rays to see inside the human body, scientists are using muons , a type of subatomic particle, to peer inside Egyptian pyramids, volcanoes and other hard to penetrate structures ( SN: 4/23/22, p. 22 ).
Evidence is mounting that Epstein-Barr virus somehow instigates multiple sclerosis. Understanding the link between the virus and MS may lead to better treatments for the neurological disorder. Vaccines against the virus may even prevent MS altogether ( SN: 8/13/22, p. 14 ).
In 1992, two astronomers discovered a doughnut-shaped region far beyond Neptune, dubbed the Kuiper Belt, that’s home to a swarm of frozen objects left over from the solar system’s formation. By studying these far-off objects over the last 30 years, scientists have gained new insights into how planets form ( SN: 8/27/22, p. 22 ).
Ancient Americans may have been big-game scavengers rather than big-game hunters. Some recent analyses suggest that Clovis stone points were more likely tools for butchering large carcasses than weapons for taking down mammoths and other large animals ( SN: 1/15/22, p. 22 ).
Our mission is to provide accurate, engaging news of science to the public. That mission has never been more important than it is today.
As a nonprofit news organization, we cannot do it without you.
Your support enables us to keep our content free and accessible to the next generation of scientists and engineers. Invest in quality science journalism by donating today.
Science News was founded in 1921 as an independent, nonprofit source of accurate information on the latest news of science, medicine and technology. Today, our mission remains the same: to empower people to evaluate the news and the world around them. It is published by the Society for Science, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education (EIN 53-0196483).
CHICAGO — An entire ocean of liquid magma, or maybe a hot heart of solid metal, may lurk in Io’s underworld.
The surface of Jupiter’s innermost moon is covered in scorching lava lakes and gored by hundreds of active volcanoes , some spitting molten rock dozens of kilometers high ( SN: 8/6/14 ). Over the years, the moon’s restless, mesmerizing hellscape has attracted the attention of many planetary scientists ( SN: 5/3/22 ).
Now, researchers are digging into the nature of Io’s infernal interior to explain what is driving the spectacular volcanism on the moon’s fiery surface. “It’s the most volcanically active place in the solar system,” says planetary scientist Samuel Howell of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “But it’s not really clear where that energy comes from.”
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Researchers generally agree that Io gets most of its energy from a gravitational tug-of-war between its parent planet Jupiter and its sibling moon Europa. Those grand forces pull on Io’s rocky body, generating tremendous frictional heat in its interior. But how that heat is stored and moved around remains a mystery.
One explanation is that Io’s netherworld may house an enormous ocean of liquid magma , planetary scientist David Stevenson of Caltech said December 15 at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting. Though the exact size of the proposed molten sea remains uncertain, it would need to be relatively large, he said. “The magma ocean could be, say, 100 kilometers thick.”
In 2011, researchers reported that Io’s mantle couldn’t be completely solid. Magnetic measurements of Io from the Galileo spacecraft indicated there must be an electrically conductive layer inside the moon. A global underground layer containing molten rock , the scientists wrote, would fit the bill.
But the researchers couldn’t tell whether that layer would consist of a continuous sea of magma or many little pockets of molten rock dispersed throughout solid rock, resembling a soggy sponge.
Building off that previous work, Stevenson and Caltech geophysicist Yoshinori Miyazaki calculated that a mixed layer of magma and solid rock beneath Io’s crust would be fundamentally unstable under the amount of heating they predict occurs inside the moon. The molten rock and solid rock would split into distinct layers, with the molten rock coalescing into a subsurface sea, Stevenson said. “The final conclusion is [that] Io has a magma ocean.”
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But there are other possibilities. “A lot of information is consistent with a large, global conductive layer that could be a magma ocean,” Howell says. “But I wouldn’t say there’s consensus on how to interpret that data.”
Instead, the truth may lie within Io’s heart, where a core made of solid metal may lurk , Howell reported December 15 at the meeting. Previous research has suggested that Io has a core rich in metals . Howell and colleagues calculate that a metal core that’s about as rigid as solid ice and a rocky mantle as viscous as Earth’s could fully dispense the immense quantities of heat that Io is estimated to emit. That would fulfill the energy-shedding role of a magma ocean.
Future measurements collected by NASA’s ongoing Juno mission as well two future spacecraft — NASA’s Europa Clipper and the European Space Agency’s JUICE — may provide the data needed to determine whether either, or some combination, of the hypotheses is correct, Stevenson and Howell said ( SN: 12/15/22 ). Until then, the mystery of what dwells in Io’s dark depths may have to remain in purgatory.
Nikk Ogasa is a staff writer who focuses on the physical sciences for Science News . He has a master’s degree in geology from McGill University, and a master’s degree in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Our mission is to provide accurate, engaging news of science to the public. That mission has never been more important than it is today.
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Your support enables us to keep our content free and accessible to the next generation of scientists and engineers. Invest in quality science journalism by donating today.
Science News was founded in 1921 as an independent, nonprofit source of accurate information on the latest news of science, medicine and technology. Today, our mission remains the same: to empower people to evaluate the news and the world around them. It is published by the Society for Science, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education (EIN 53-0196483).
A sign on the 110 freeway in Los Angeles warns drivers of extreme heat and urges energy conservation during a heat wave that baked the western United States in September.
Climate change amped up weather extremes around the globe, smashing temperature records, sinking river levels to historic lows and raising rainfall to devastating highs. Droughts set the stage for wildfires and worsened food insecurity. Researchers found themselves pondering the limits of humans’ ability to tolerate extreme heat ( SN: 7/27/22 ).
The extreme events from 2022 pinpointed on the map below are just a sample of this year’s climate disasters. Each was exacerbated by human-caused climate change or is in line with projections of regional impacts.
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In its Sixth Assessment Report, released in 2021 and 2022, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, warned that humans are dramatically overhauling Earth’s climate ( SN: 8/9/21 ). Earth’s average surface temperature has already risen by at least 1.1 degree Celsius since preindustrial times, thanks to human inputs of heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere, particularly carbon dioxide and methane ( SN: 3/10/22 ). That warming has shifted the flow of energy around the planet, altering weather patterns, raising sea levels and turning past extremes into new normals ( SN: 2/1/22 ).
And the world will have to weather more such climate extremes as carbon keeps accumulating in the atmosphere and global temperatures continue to rise. But IPCC scientists and others hope that, by highlighting the regional and local effects of climate change, the world will ramp up its efforts to reduce climate-warming emissions — averting a more disastrous future.
Carolyn Gramling is the earth & climate writer. She has bachelor’s degrees in geology and European history and a Ph.D. in marine geochemistry from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Our mission is to provide accurate, engaging news of science to the public. That mission has never been more important than it is today.
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Science News was founded in 1921 as an independent, nonprofit source of accurate information on the latest news of science, medicine and technology. Today, our mission remains the same: to empower people to evaluate the news and the world around them. It is published by the Society for Science, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education (EIN 53-0196483).
As tiny glass frogs fall asleep for the day, they take almost 90 percent of their red blood cells out of circulation.
The colorful cells cram into hideaway pockets inside the frog liver, which disguises the cells behind a mirrorlike surface, a new study finds. Biologists have known that glass frogs have translucent skin, but temporarily hiding bold red blood brings a new twist to vertebrate camouflage ( SN: 6/23/17 ).
“The heart stopped pumping red, which is the normal color of blood, and only pumped a bluish liquid,” says evolutionary biochemist Carlos Taboada of Duke University, one of the discoverers of the hidden blood.
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What may be even more amazing to humans — prone to circulatory sludge and clogs — is that the frogs hold almost all their red blood cells packed together for hours with no blood clots, says co-discoverer Jesse Delia, now at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Wake the frog up, and cells just unpack themselves and get circulating again.
Hiding those red blood cells can double or triple the transparency of glass frogs , Taboada, Delia and colleagues report in the Dec. 23 Science . That greenish transparency can matter a lot for the snack-sized frogs, which spend the day hiding like little shadows on the undersides of the leaves high in the forest canopy.
What got Delia wondering about transparency was a photo emergency. He had studied glass frog behavior, but had never even seen them asleep. “They go to bed, I go to bed — that was my life for years,” he says. When he needed some charismatic portraits, however, he put some frogs in lab dishes and at last saw how the animals sleep the day away.
“It was really obvious that I couldn’t see any red blood in the circulatory system,” Delia says. “I shot a video of it — it was crazy.”
As he pitched his project to a Duke University lab for support, he was stunned to discover that another young researcher was pitching the same lab to study transparency in glass frogs. “I was like, oh, man,” Delia says. But the leader of the biological optics lab at Duke, Sönke Johnsen, told Delia and his rival, Taboada, that they had different skill sets and should tackle the problem together. “I think we were hardheaded at first,” Delia says. “Now I consider him as close as family.”
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To show what red blood cells do in living frogs made a tough puzzle. Light microscopy wouldn’t work for seeing through the mirrorlike outer tissue of the liver. Nor would anything that woke up the frogs ( Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni ), because the red blood cells would rush out through the body. Even anesthetizing the frogs kept the liver trick from working.
The answer Delia and Taboada found comes from a technique called photoacoustic imaging, mostly used by engineers. It reveals hidden interiors thanks to the subtle vibrations created by light striking various molecules and causing slight energy releases. Duke’s Junjie Yao joined team glass frog to tailor the technique to frog livers, taking special care not to wake the animals in the process.
Despite glass frogs’ name, transparency among vertebrates can get much more extreme, says fish biologist Sarah Friedman of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. She tweeted an image in June of a newly caught blotched snailfish ( Crystallichthys cyclospilus ), clear enough in most of its body to show flesh tones and finger lines in her hand as she cradled it. And that’s not even the best example. The larval stages of tarpon fish and eels, glassfishes and a kind of Asian glass catfish “are almost perfectly transparent,” says Friedman, who wasn’t involved in the new study.
But these marvels have the advantage of living in water, she says. Evolving exquisite glassiness is easier where there’s not as sharp a visible difference between animals’ bodies and their watery homes. Still, having a transparent body is pretty cool, on land or sea.
Susan Milius is the life sciences writer, covering organismal biology and evolution, and has a special passion for plants, fungi and invertebrates. She studied biology and English literature.
Our mission is to provide accurate, engaging news of science to the public. That mission has never been more important than it is today.
As a nonprofit news organization, we cannot do it without you.
Your support enables us to keep our content free and accessible to the next generation of scientists and engineers. Invest in quality science journalism by donating today.
Science News was founded in 1921 as an independent, nonprofit source of accurate information on the latest news of science, medicine and technology. Today, our mission remains the same: to empower people to evaluate the news and the world around them. It is published by the Society for Science, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education (EIN 53-0196483).
