Science News - USA (2021-02-13)

http://www.sciencenews.org | February 13, 2021 1

FROM TOP: CASEY REED/PENN STATE; ADHI AGUS OKTAVIANA; JOHN SULLIVAN/INATURALIST.ORG (CC BY-NC 4.0)

VOL. 199 | NO. 3

News

8

Departments

2 EDITOR’S NOTE

4 NOTEBOOK

Electric eels hunt in

groups; the oceans took

a lot of heat in 2020

29 REVIEWS & PREVIEWS

Scientists ponder

technological fixes

to save the planet

31 FEEDBACK

32 SCIENCE VISUALIZED

A warty pig is the subject

of one of the oldest cave

paintings ever found

Features

16 Our Wild Universe

In the last 100 years, researchers have established

Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity as the

foundation of our under standing of the cosmos and

confirmed its most bizarre predictions, including black

holes, gravitational waves and universe expansion.

By Elizabeth Quill

24 Inside Your Head

COVER STORYEthicists, scientists and our readers

grapple with the implications of new technologies that

let outsiders inside the mind. By Laura Sanders

16

COVER New technologies

aim to listen in on — and

maybe even change — your

brain activity. Julia Yellow

6 The Parker Solar Probe

has company spying on

the sun

8 Many animals make

themselves at home in

monitor lizard burrows

Brown tree snakes use

their tails as lassos to

climb large trees or poles

9 Mice share each other’s

pain and pain relief

10 Astronomers spot

a galaxy on the brink

of a shutdown

A flaring magnetar is

traced to another galaxy

12 Fossil fuels will likely

remain a big part of

Africa’s energy mix

13 Sea stars suffocate

when bacteria deplete

the water of oxygen

14 News in Brief

Drones may someday

deliver the quantum

internet

A 350,000-year-old

stone found in Israel is

the earliest known tool

for grinding or rubbing

The International Space

Station finds the source

of “blue jet” lightning

32

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