(left to right): Gary Waters/Getty Images; JULIO MANUEL VIDA ENCINAS; MOHD RASFAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
By Alex Fox
Does a ‘dark triad’ of personality traits make you more successful?
The dark side of human personality has long fascinated the public and psychologists alike. Research has linked unpleasant traits such as selfishness and a lack of empathy to a higher income and better odds of landing a date. But in a new study, scientists argue such work is often superficial, statistically weak, and presents an overly simplistic view of human nature.
Men who lived in Spain 4500 years ago left almost no male genetic legacy today
The genetic legacy of men who lived on the Iberian Peninsula 4500 years ago has largely diminished—all of their Y chromosomes, which are passed from men to men, were replaced as new farming cultures swept into the region and drove them out of the gene pool. That’s one of the striking conclusions of the largest analysis of ancient DNA from the Iberian Peninsula.
These odd, scaled mammals are the most poached in the world—and they could go extinct
International conservation groups and government agencies are intensifying efforts to save pangolins, armadillolike mammals that face a bleak future as the world’s most poached and trafficked animal. They are in demand for both their meat and their scales, believed in some Asian countries to have medicinal properties. The past 2 months have seen record-setting seizures of pangolin body parts both in Asia and Africa.
Trump once again requests deep cuts in U.S. science spending
For the third year in a row, President Donald Trump’s administration has unveiled a budget request to Congress that calls for deep spending cuts at many federal science agencies, including a 13% cut for the National Institutes of Health and a 12% cut for the National Science Foundation, while providing hefty increases for the military.
New fuel cell could help fix the renewable energy storage problem
Transitioning to renewable energy will take technology that can convert electricity from wind and sun into a chemical fuel for storage and then convert that fuel back into electricity. Commercial devices that do this exist, but most are costly and perform only half of the equation. Now, researchers have created lab-scale gadgets that do both jobs. If larger versions work as well, they would help make it possible—or at least more affordable—to run the world on renewables.
Source: Science Mag