science news 5.6.2019

Today's selection of science news. Links are normally to press releases on EurekAlert (at the bottom end I may also add a couple of newspaper stories). I include quotes from the summary (using quotation marks) in cases where the title alone doesn't reveal what the story is about. My own thoughts appear without quotation marks, if I have any.


astrobiology

Building blocks of the Earth
"Geologists from the Universities of Cologne and Bonn gain new insights regarding the Earth's composition by analysing meteorites. They conclude that the building blocks that brought volatile elements to Earth have a chemical composition similar to that of primitive carbonaceous chondrites."

Exomoons may be home to extra-terrestrial life
A modelling study aiming to work out how exomoons may affect the rings of planet J1407b, which are 200 times larger than those of Saturn. Sadly, not a discovery of exomoons as such.



Exoplanets also have moons - however, the image here displays Saturns rings, which differ from those studied but are a good visualization.
Credit: NASA


ecology

Frogs find refuge in elephant tracks

'Citizen scientists' help track foxes, coyotes in urban areas


chemistry

Deep learning techniques teach neural model to 'play' retrosynthesis


humans

Gene mutation evolved to cope with modern high-sugar diets