The Science Life

  1. Microbes

    Missing Antarctic microbes raise thorny questions about the search for aliens

    Scientists couldn’t find microbial life in soils from Antarctica, hinting at a limit for habitability on Earth and other worlds.

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  2. Ecosystems

    As ‘phantom rivers’ roar, birds and bats change their hunting habits

    A massive experiment in the Idaho wilderness shows it’s not just human-made noises that impact ecosystems. Natural noises can too.

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  3. Chemistry

    A sweet father-son bond inspires tasty new molecule models

    New edible models of proteins could spark students’ interest in the world of chemistry, especially students who are blind.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    A music therapist seeks to tap into long-lost memories

    Alaine Reschke-Hernández is partnering with neuroscientists to figure out how music improves Alzheimer’s patients’ lives.

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  5. Math

    How one physicist is unraveling the mathematics of knitting

    Understanding how knots influence textile properties could lead to bespoke materials.

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  6. Space

    To rehearse Perseverance’s mission, scientists pretended to be a Mars rover

    Seven Mars scientists pretended to be the Mars Perseverance rover on a training exercise in the Nevada desert.

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  7. Animals

    How Yellowstone wolves got their own Ancestry.com page

    Since the wolves’ reintroduction to the park, 25 years of devoted watching has chronicled bold moves, big fights and lots of puppies.

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  8. Science & Society

    Real-life scientists inspire these comic book superheroes

    Three scientists are publishing comics casting researchers as heroes, and hope the cartoon format and pared-down storyline can boost science literacy.

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  9. Ecosystems

    Tapirs may be key to reviving the Amazon. All they need to do is poop

    Brazilian ecologist Lucas Paolucci is collecting tapir dung to understand how the piglike mammals may help restore degraded rain forests.

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  10. Paleontology

    Deep caves are a rich source of dinosaur prints for this paleontologist

    Several deep caves in France are proving to be a surprising source of dinosaur tracks.

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  11. Animals

    Dancing peacock spiders turned an arachnophobe into an arachnologist

    Just 22, Joseph Schubert has described 12 of 86 peacock spider species. One with a blue and yellow abdomen is named after Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

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  12. Climate

    These women endured a winter in the high Arctic for citizen science

    Two women have spent the winter on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard to collect data for climate scientists around the world.

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