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Since the 1980s physicists have deployed a string of increasingly advanced detectors in pursuit of something that ought to be ubiquitous but has proved devilishly hard to capture. Dark matter, the invisible stuff thought to make up a quarter of the universe, has yet to show in even the most sophisticated experiments. Another blow befell the search last October, when the world’s most sensitive detector of WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) came up empty....

Greenland’s snow-white ice is getting darker and melting faster, a new study shows. Soot deposited from forest fires is helping to color the snow, drawing in warmth like a black car in summer. But even cleaner ice may be melting faster due to higher temperatures that cause the formation of larger ice grains, according to the study, published in the European Geosciences Union journal The Cryosphere. “It’s a self-feeding process, which is ultimately very important because it accelerates warming,” said the study’s lead author, Marco Tedesco, a professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory....

Men may not go on a hormonal rollercoaster with their pregnant partners, but once the baby shows up, their bodies biologically transition into “daddy mode,” suggests a new study finding that levels of testosterone, the “macho” sex hormone, drop in new fathers. “Men are, to a certain degree, hardwired to take care of their kids,” study researcher Lee Gettler, of Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, told LiveScience. “This is important because traditional models of human evolution have portrayed women as the gatherers that take care of the kids and stay behind....

You may snicker when you see dog owners talk to their pets as though they were human or view YouTube videos of dogs supposedly speaking English back to their owners, saying words like “banana” and “I love you.” And with good reason: although dogs have the capacity to understand more than 100 words, studies have demonstrated Fido can’t really speak human languages or comprehend them with the same complexity that we do....

Dermatologist Joshua L. Fox, director of the Center for Laser and Cosmetic Surgery in New York, explains. More people than ever are getting tattoos today and estimates for the U.S. population indicate that approximately 3 percent now have tattoos. A quick look at any professional basketball game reveals that more than half the players have body art. Getting a tattoo has never been safer, primarily because of the use of disposable needles, but people with tattoos and those considering getting one should still remain mindful of the possibility that someday they may no longer want it....

Hurricanes are evolving as the world warms—and they’re changing in alarming ways. They’re getting stronger and are strengthening faster. In some places, they’re moving more slowly and dumping more rain. And now, scientists have discovered, they’re creeping closer to coastlines all over the world. Research released yesterday in the journal Science examines where tropical cyclones hit their peak intensity as they move across the ocean—and how far they are from land when that happens....

In September Pres. Donald Trump announced during his election campaign that he would guarantee six weeks of paid maternity leave for working mothers—the first time a Republican presidential candidate has made such a promise. But even if he keeps his word, such a policy may not help many new moms, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health. Jay Zagorsky, an economist and research scientist at The Ohio State University, analyzed data from an employment survey given to 60,000 U....

India is in the midst of its second drought in four years, with rainfall roughly 20 percent below average nationwide. In the nation’s agricultural areas of the west and north – the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Maharashtra, for example – the situation is far worse. In Punjab – India’s “food basket” – rainfall is 70 percent below average. “We know that the rainfall in August will not be able to fill the gap, and the problem is getting really serious,” said Harjeet Singh, international climate justice coordinator at ActionAid....

The nation’s aging infrastructure makes up an interconnected web of systems that are alarmingly vulnerable to the shocks of climate change, according to a report released today that will inform the National Climate Assessment, to be made public next month. The difficulty of strengthening the systems that support the American economy – from electricity to drinking water – poses significant problems requiring large investments at a time of rising risk and receding political appetite for big spending initiatives....

We like to think of our brain as an incredibly sophisticated thinking machine that has been fine-tuned by evolution. But recently researchers working with mice found that a tiny genetic manipulation significantly boosted brainpower with seemingly no negative consequences. People have this gene, too, and it is active in the same brain area. In other words, we may have a gene in our heads that is actively making us dumber. Emory University pharmacologist John Hepler and his team studied a section of the hippocampus called CA2, found in both mice and humans....

“Funny or die” has a whole new meaning, thanks to a large study published in April in Psychosomatic Medicine. Women with a strong sense of humor were found to live longer in spite of illness, especially cardiovascular disease and infection. Mirthful men seem to be protected against infection. Norwegian researchers reported findings from a 15-year study on the link between sense of humor and mortality among 53,556 women and men in their country....

Since the early 1990s, I, together with my colleagues, have been studying the economic burden of adults with major depressive disorders (MDD). Over that time, we have tracked shifts in the prevalence of this disease; in the makeup of those suffering from it; and in the nature of treatment both for the disease itself and for the host of comorbidities, such as pain and anxiety disorders, that accompany it. We have then used these data as the basis for calculating the incremental economic burden of adults with MDD—that is, the additional costs traceable to those suffering from the disease in terms of both medical treatment and workplace productivity impacts....

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. In the wake of the reversal of Roe v. Wade, developing more contraception options for everyone becomes even more important. Women and people who can become pregnant have a number of effective birth control methods available, including oral pills, patches, injections, implants, vaginal rings, IUDs and sterilization. But for men and people who produce sperm, options have been limited....

A promising treatment for a rare childhood disorder characterized by rapid aging and death prevented and even reversed the most devastating effect of the disease in mice. Researchers report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that the therapy could potentially help youngsters combat life-threatening cardiovascular disease resulting from the genetic condition Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome. Progeria affects one in every four million to eight million births; there are about 50 cases currently recognized worldwide with 10 to 12 in the U....

Tyrannosaurus rex is an icon, a dinosaur known to nearly everyone on the planet. It doesn’t get much more awesome than a 13-meter long, seven-ton superpredator that could bite through the bones of its prey. T. rex may be the undisputed king of the dinosaurs, but how did evolution produce such a marvellous creature, the biggest predator ever to live on land? It’s been a mystery for a long time, but a new species of tyrannosaur from Uzbekistan – a smaller and earlier cousin of T....

The drug’s inventors called their creation a “superantibody.” They hoped that it would be capable of activating immune cells other antibody drugs could not on their own. The moniker for the compound, targeted at autoimmune disease or leukemia, was TGN1412, made by TeGenero, based in Wrzburg, Germany. On March 13 six previously healthy volunteers given the antibody in a routine test of its safety were sent to intensive care. Although all the men are out of critical condition, one patient who went into a three-week coma after taking the drug may lose bits of his fingers and toes....

In a historic document addressed to “every person living on this planet,” Pope Francis warns that climate change and other forms of environmental degradation have reached a crisis point. Francis frames “Laudato Si’,” the first papal encyclical devoted solely to ecological issues, as an “urgent appeal … for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.” Encyclicals are among the highest forms of Catholic teaching a pontiff can publish....

Corn—or the cellulose in everything from wood chips to crop stalks—are often touted as the basis of the fuel of the future. But Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates is betting that algae will provide the answer to our future fuel needs. He’s so sure, in fact, that last week he joined the Rockefeller family and London-based Wellcome Trust to invest $100 million in a California start-up devoted to churning out biofuel from this tiny primitive plant....

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — An untested commercial spacecraft blasted off on its first trek to the International Space Station today (Sept. 18), kicking off a major demonstration mision for its Virginia-based builders and NASA. The unmanned Cygnus spacecraft and its Antares rocket soared into orbit with a tremendous roar at 10:58 a.m. EDT (1458 GMT) today from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility here — a huge success for the commercial spaceflight company Orbital Sciences Corp....

By Heidi Ledford of Nature magazineAt last, a member of the celebrated sirtuin family of proteins has been shown to extend lifespan in mammals – although it’s not the one that has received the most attention and financial investment.Sirtuin genes and the proteins they encode have intrigued many researchers who study ageing ever since they were first linked to longevity in yeast. Results published today in Nature suggest that the overexpression of one gene, called sirtuin 6 (SIRT6), can lengthen lifespan in male mice by as much as 15....