All Stories
- Neuroscience
Mapping aggression circuits in the brain
Using optogenetics and other techniques, scientists are tracing connections to and from the brain’s aggression command center.
- Life
Experimental herpes vaccine works in mice
An experimental herpes vaccine works in animal tests by using an approach starkly different from that used in previous vaccine development.
- Agriculture
Cage free isn’t good enough for livestock, ‘The Modern Savage’ argues
Even on a small farm, life can be brutal for animals, historian and animal rights advocate says in new book.
- Animals
Hummingbird may get promoted
Not just a subspecies: A flashy, squeaky hummingbird should become its own species, ornithologists argue.
- Life
Life’s origin might illustrate the power of game theory
Game theory math can describe molecular competition and cooperation, perhaps providing clues to the origin of life.
- Paleontology
Possible ancestor of sponges found
An exquisitely preserved 600-million-year-old fossil from China has cell types and a shape resembling sponges, thought to be among the first multicellular animals to evolve.
- Genetics
Protein comparisons proposed in 1960s for tracking evolution
In 1965, two scientists spotted molecular signatures of primate divergence. The tool became widespread for studying evolution – and one researcher’s career ended in crime.
- Environment
Replacement for toxic chemical in plastics, receipts may be just as toxic
Mounting evidence suggests that BPS, a common chemical in plastics, may cause the same health effects as BPA.
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- Ecosystems
When animals invade human spaces
‘Feral Cities’ explores the wildlife living amongst us, sometimes noticed and sometimes not.
- Earth
Tethys Ocean implicated in Pangaea breakup
The shrinking of the Tethys Ocean may have broken up the Pangaea supercontinent.
- Animals
Lemurs expected to lose much of their ranges this century
As the climate warms, Madagascar’s little primates will lose habitat, threatening some with extinction.
