earth
Ice Ages occur when tropical islands and continents collide
"Earth's steady state is warm and balmy, but half a dozen times over the past billion years, the planet developed ice caps and glaciers. Researchers have now amassed evidence that these cold snaps occurred when tectonic activity propelled continents headlong into volcanic island arcs in the tropics, uplifting ophiolites that rapidly absorbed carbon dioxide, cooling Earth. Once collisions stopped, CO2 again built up from volcanic eruptions and a runaway greenhouse effect warmed the planet."
evolution
Ancient 'Texas Serengeti' had elephant-like animals, rhinos, alligators and more
ecology
Study: How will tropical mammals react to rising temperatures?
"How wildlife will react to climate change is an open question, but one of the first studies to compare the responses of tropical mammals to warmer habitats suggests the answer won't be as simple as 'move to a cooler place.'"
nanoworld
Engineers tap DNA to create 'lifelike' machines
humans
Multiple Denisovan-related ancestries in Papuans
People with a sense of oneness experience greater life satisfaction
"People who believe in oneness -- the idea that everything in the world is connected and interdependent -- appear to have greater life satisfaction than those who don't, regardless of whether they belong to a religion or don't, according to research published by the American Psychological Association."
Astronaut has no lingering, major epigenetic differences from earthbound twin brother
"This is the dawn of human genomics in space," claims a researcher quoted in the PR - and a candidate for an IgNobel. What I didn't find on skimming through was: Did they select Scott Kelly as an astronaut for the ISS stay because he had a monozygotic twin, or did the idea arise after it turned out one of the ISS people had one?
NB there are at least 10 other PRs on various aspects of Scott Kelly's physiology including his telomers and his gut microbiome - but I assume they all point to the same paper out in Science today.
Texts like networks: How many words are sufficient to recognize the author?
A member of my household once read one of my pieces in a newspaper and got about halfway before finding it suspicious and checking the byline ...
The author of an unsigned text can be identified by analyzing the relationship between just a few words of the text, as shown by physicist-statisticians from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow. (Source: IFJ PAN)
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