‘The Russians must know it’s a lie.’ Ukrainian bat research spun into a false tale of bioweapons | Science

In 2020, German researchers began to collaborate with Ukrainian colleagues to survey bat parasites, mostly bloodsuckers such as ticks and fleas. They wanted to know what kinds of bacteria the bats in Ukraine harbored—a first step in identifying any potential threats to human health. Researchers at the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine in … Read more

Evolution Keeps Making And Unmaking Crabs, And Nobody Knows Why

Our planet’s convoluted history of evolving life has spawned countless weird and wonderful creatures, but none excite evolutionary biologists – or divide taxonomists – quite like crabs.   When researchers attempted to reconcile the evolutionary history of crabs in all their raucous glory just earlier this year, they arrived at the conclusion that the defining … Read more

FYI, Rapid Antigen Tests May Give More False Negatives With Omciron

Rapid Covid home tests are more likely to give a false negative with the heavily-mutated Omicron variant compared to earlier strains, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday.   The news comes as the country is facing a massive surge in cases that experts say is being under-captured as a result of a … Read more

‘False’ tree rings could provide a new record of long-ago hurricanes | Science

A tree’s annual growth rings reveal how it has flourished—or floundered—over time, with the size of the rings indicating years of health or hardship. But sometimes nature throws a wrench into the works, and a tree will form more than one growth ring in a year. Now, such “false rings,” found in trees along the … Read more