Physiology
- Plants
Genetic switch offers clue to why grasses are survival masters
Scientists have identified a genetic switch that helps grasses regulate their carbon dioxide intake.
- Neuroscience
Scratching is catching in mice
Contagious itching spreads by sight mouse-to-mouse, and scientists have identified brain structures behind the phenomenon.
- Life
Here’s how earwax might clean ears
Science seeks inspiration in earwax for dreams of self-cleaning machinery.
- Animals
It takes guts for a sea spider to pump blood
Most sea spiders have hearts, but what really gets their blood flowing are gut contractions.
- Animals
Why crested penguins lay mismatched eggs
After long migratory swims, crested penguins lay one small and one larger egg.
- Animals
Brazilian free-tailed bats are the fastest fliers
Ultrafast flying by one bat species leaves birds in the dust.
- Animals
Dwarf lemurs don’t agree on sleep
Fat-tailed dwarf lemurs’ surprising hibernation-sleep doesn’t show up in ground-hibernating relatives.
- Animals
In drought, zebra finches wring water from their own fat
A zebra finch with no water or food can keep itself hydrated by metabolizing body fat.
- Animals
Ways to beat heat have hidden costs for birds
Birds that look as if they’re coping with heat waves and climate change may actually be on a downward slide, with underappreciated disadvantages of panting and seeking shade.
- Animals
Anemone proteins offer clue to restoring hearing loss
Proteins that sea anemones use to regenerate may help restore damaged hearing in mammals.
- Life
A healthy old age may trump immortality
Despite disagreements about what aging is and isn't, scientists have reached a radical consensus: It can be delayed.
- Life
Obesity’s weight gain message starts in gut
Acetate made by gut microbes stimulates weight gain, research in rodents suggests.
