Each week we uncover the most interesting and informative articles from around the world, here are 10 of the coolest stories in science this week.
Spreading Disease
Paranthropus boisei, whose skull cast is shown here, roamed across East Africa 1.4 million to 2..4 million years ago.
Credit: Louise Walsh
The ancestors of modern humans may have gotten genital herpes from the now-extinct relative of humanity commonly known as Nutcracker Man, a new study suggests.
The researchers thought the most likely route through which HSV2 invaded the ancestors of modern humans was from African apes through an unknown hominin species. [Read more about the germs.]
CO2 Overload
A NASA camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite captured its first view of the entire sunlit side of the spherical planet Earth, on July 6, 2015.
Credit: NASA
The amount of carbon dioxide that humans will have released into the atmosphere by 2100 may be enough to trigger a sixth mass extinction, a new study suggests.
So what distinguishes the deadly carbon excursions from the ones that don't cause mass dying? [Read more about the possibilities.]
Is It Really a Game?
New England Patriots running back Mike Gillislee (35) is tackled by Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III (28) and linebacker Kendell Beckwith (51) during an NFL football game on Oct. 05, 2017.
Credit: Roy K. Miller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The lawyer for Aaron Hernandez is suing the National Football League after an autopsy found that the 27-year-old player, who died by suicide after being convicted of murder, had a brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). A new study suggests that kids who play tackle football before age 12 are at risk of developing CTE, which can cause mood swings, aggression and dementia-like symptoms. And yet, another recent study found evidence of CTE in the brains of 99 percent of NFL players examined posthumously. [Read more about the dangers.]
Unexpected Discovery
Many of the known outflows of mixed helium and nitrogen are beneath seeps of ground water, which make the bubbles of gases visible as they rise to the surface.
Credit: Peter Barry
Large underground reserves of helium in East Africa are at least twice as large as first reported, according to scientists from the University of Oxford and the company that plans to start pumping up the precious gas within three years.
The discovery of the helium field in Tanzania comes as the world faces a shortage of the nonrenewable gas, which has critical applications in industry, scientific research and medicine. [Read more about helium cache.]
Matching Blades
Apart from a few scratches, the 2.6-inch-long (6.5 centimeters) blade is undamaged.
Credit: Res Eichenberger
Archaeologists found a copper blade in Switzerland that's just like the ax Ötzi the famous "Iceman"was carrying when he died.
The ax was discovered in Zug-Riedmatt, one of the many pile-dwelling villages around the Alps that are famous for their prehistoric wooden houses built on stilts on lakeshores and other wetlands. [Read more about the ax.]
Time, Cold and Atoms
To make this quantum gas atomic clock, researchers used multiple lasers to cool strontium atoms and trap them in a grid of light. Then, a blue laser beam excites the cube-shaped cloud of the atoms.
Credit: G.E. Marti/JILA
A new kind of atomic clock is more precise than any yet built, with the ability to tick smoothly for a thousand times the lifetime of the universe. In addition to being the best timekeeper to date, the new so-called quantum gas clock might one day offer insights into new physics.
The cold atoms were trapped by a 3D arrangement of lasers. The beams were set up to interfere with each other. As they did so, they created regions of low and high potential energy, called potential wells. The wells act like stacked egg cartons, and each one holds a strontium atom. [Read more about the clock.]
Generating Electricity
What do egg whites and human tears have in common? According to a new study from Ireland, both materials can generate electricity, thanks to an enzyme they contain.
Indeed, materials such as bone, wood, tendons and proteins (including collagen and keratin) have piezoelectric properties, according to the study. [Read more about crying.]
Life After Death?
In the 2017 movie "Flatliners," Courtney (Ellen Page) experiences death. But then she gets better.
Credit: Sony Pictures
Driven by ambition and curiosity to learn what lies on the other side of death, five medical students deliberately stop their hearts in order to experience "the afterlife" in the new thriller "Flatliners" (Sony Pictures), which opened in U.S. theaters on Sept. 29.
But what really happens in the body and brain in the moments after cardiac arrest? [Read more about the end.]
Vitamin Deficiency and Health
These two photos show the patient's eyes before treatment. In the photo on the left, the black arrows point to "Bitot spots," which are raised, dry patches on the surface of the eye. The photo on the right shows changes to the boy's cornea, which is the transparent layer at the front of the eye. Reproduced with permission from JAMA Pediatrics. 2017. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.2543
Credit: Courtesy of the American Medical Association.
One boy's vision problems and odd changes to his eyes turned out to be caused by a highly restrictive diet, according to a new report of the boy's case from Canada.
The boy had multiple food allergies and eczema, according to the report. Because of concerns that certain foods could possibly trigger eczema outbreaks, the boy's diet was limited to potatoes, pork, lamb, apples, cucumbers and Cheerios. [Read more about the strange effect.]
And the Award Goes To...
A computer simulation showing gravitational waves during a black-hole collision. The discovery has major implications for science.
Credit: MPI for Gravitational Physics/W.Benger-Zib
As expected by many, the 2017 Nobel Prize for physics went to three scientists who helped detect gravitational waves, ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein.
It took scientists such a long time to arrive at the discovery because gravitational waves — even though they come from violent, powerful collisions — are extremely small once they reach Earth. [Read more about discovery.]
