Autism diagnoses have skyrocketed — from a rare condition to a common reality for 1 in 36 children.

The dramatic rise has drawn national attention, including from President Donald Trump, who recently questioned the surge during a joint address to Congress. Trump said “not long ago” cases were only “1 in 10,000,” perhaps referring to a 1970 study by Darold A. Treffert.

While some see cause for concern, Northeastern University experts also point to better awareness and earlier diagnoses as contributing factors to the increase in numbers.

After all, they say, much is still being learned about autism, which was only officially recognized by Congress as a disability in 1990.

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This week, part of the world will be treated to a rare kind of lunar eclipse, as the moon will turn red and become a so-called Blood Moon.

This month’s full moon –– the Worm Moon –– will completely enter Earth’s shadow on the night of March 13 or early morning of March 14. Unlike a solar eclipse that is only visible within a narrow stretch of a few hundred miles, the “Blood Worm Moon” will be visible in the entire Western Hemisphere, including all of North and South America and the far western parts of Africa and Europe.

But what is a lunar eclipse and what makes this month’s total lunar eclipse so special?

The answer to both questions comes down to “a little bit of luck and a little bit of geometry,” says Jacqueline McCleary, an assistant professor of physics at Northeastern University.

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AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

Over the past two decades, the Gulf of Maine has become a popular landing spot for invasive species from across the world, says Geoffrey Trussell, an evolutionary biologist and professor at Northeastern University’s Marine Science Center in Nahant, Massachusetts.

“Lots of invasive species have arrived on our shores, mostly through ship ballast,” he explains. “So you have this confluence of significant environmental changes.”

Trussell has witnessed those changes on the ground — very, very low ground. Starting when he was a Ph.D. student in the 1990s, he has monitored the evolution of two common species of sea snails living off Maine’s coast, tracking how they have responded to changes in that environment and the resulting influx of predators. Among the most successful of these are predatory green crabs — small, brightly colored crustaceans that have surged north from the mid-Atlantic coast over the past few decades and love to feast on tidal snails.

In a recent paper published in the academic journal Science Advances, Trussell and collaborator James Corbett document how the snails (Nucella lapillus and Littorina obtusata) have evolved in response. In brief: they’ve grown thicker shells.

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Illustration by Renee Zhang/Northeastern University

Nature is full of masters of disguise. From the chameleon to arctic hare, natural camouflage is a common yet powerful way to survive in the wild. But one animal might surprise you with its camouflage capabilities: the squid.

Capable of changing color within the blink of an eye, squid, along with their cephalopod relatives octopi and cuttlefish, have used their natural camouflage to survive since the age of the dinosaurs. However, scientists still know very little about how it all works.

Leila Deravi aims to change that.

An associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Northeastern University, Deravi’s recently published paper in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C sheds new light on how squid use organs that essentially function as organic solar cells to help power their camouflage abilities. Deravi says it’s a breakthrough in how humans understand these “super-charged animals,” one that could impact how we humans interact with the world.

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