News at a glance: Welcoming STEM students, a silent radar satellite, and China’s gene-edited crops | Science

GEOSCIENCE Orbiting radar mapper goes dark The head of the European Space Agency said last week the agency may accelerate the launch of its next Earth-observing radar satellite, after a power supply anomaly caused one of its two orbiting radar satellites, Sentinel-1B, to go dark for more than 1 month. Since its launch in 2016, … Read more

No hallucinations? LSD relatives appear to treat depression in mice, without obvious side effects | Science

More than 50 years after the Summer of Love, psychedelics are again the rage. This time the love comes from doctors beginning to embrace psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin to treat depression, substance abuse, and other serious mental health conditions. But because the drugs cause hallucinations, their medical use requires intensive monitoring by clinicians. … Read more

Illegal gold mines flood Amazon forests with toxic mercury | Science

At first glance, the Amazon rainforest of Peru’s Los Amigos Conservation Concession might seem like a pristine wilderness. Brightly colored birds flit through the jungle. A dense canopy of trees echoes with the cries of howler monkeys. Jaguars pad quietly through the shadows. Giant otters swim in Cocha Lobo Lake. But the forest is hiding … Read more

Cancer Drug Flushes Out Latent HIV, Exciting New Study Finds

A widely-used cancer drug that works on the immune system could push HIV out of hiding, potentially leaving the virus open to being attacked and eliminated, according to promising results from a small new study.   HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) almost needs no introduction: the virus is notorious for its ability to evade the immune … Read more

The Latest Verdict on The Future of Coffee Is Here, And The News Is Not Good

The world could lose half of its best coffee-growing land under a moderate climate change scenario. Brazil, which is the currently world’s largest coffee producer, will see its most suitable coffee-growing land decline by 79 percent.   That’s one key finding of a new study by scientists in Switzerland, who assessed the potential impacts of … Read more

Just Two Words on a Cookie Label Can Mess Up How It Tastes, Study Finds

Human taste buds are easily manipulated. With just a few simple words, researchers have found the same chocolate chip cookie can go from tasting scrumptiously sweet and moist to unpleasantly bitter and stale.   It all depends on what the label tells us. When 58 adults from Ohio State University were given three cookies to … Read more

The Source of Ghostly Shadows in The Sun’s Atmosphere Could Finally Be Identified

We might finally have an explanation for mysterious shadows of falling material in the atmosphere of the Sun, observed during solar flares. First spotted in 1999, these mysterious streaks of shadow – referred to as “downward-traveling dark voids” – were thought to be related to the magnetic field interactions that trigger solar eruptions. Now, solar … Read more

We May Finally Understand Why Clouds Are Different Between Earth’s Hemispheres

You might think that clouds are clouds all over Earth, but that’s not quite so. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, the clouds there are different, more abundant, and more reflective than clouds found in the Northern Hemisphere, a fact scientists are well familiar with, but have not been able to fully explain.   Now, … Read more

Wolves Already Had The Genetic Mutation to Turn Into Tiny Dogs 54,000 Years Ago

One of the main genetic mutations responsible for small size in certain dog breeds, such as Pomeranians and Chihuahuas, evolved in dog relatives long before humans began breeding these miniature companions. Researchers discovered that the mutation can even be traced back to wolves that lived more than 50,000 years ago.   Researchers discovered the mutation, which is found in … Read more