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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Astronomy

    Merging magnetic blobs fuel the sun’s huge plasma eruptions

    Solar eruptions called coronal mass ejections grow from a series of smaller events, observations show.

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  2. Life

    Human encroachment threatens chimpanzee culture

    Human activity is affecting chimps’ behavioral repertoire, a new study suggests. Creating chimp cultural heritage sites might save unique behaviors.

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  3. Neuroscience

    How singing mice belt out duets

    A precise timing system in the brain helps musical rodents from the cloud forests of Costa Rica sing to one another.

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  4. Animals

    What spiders eating weird stuff tell us about complex Amazon food webs

    By documenting rare events of invertebrates eating small vertebrates, scientists are shedding new light on the Amazon rainforest’s intricate ecosystem.

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  5. Animals

    Hermit crabs are drawn to the smell of their own dead

    A new study finds that the smell of hermit crab flesh attracts other hermit crabs of the same species desperately looking for a larger shell.

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  6. Animals

    The world’s largest bee has been rediscovered after 38 years

    Researchers rediscovered the world’s largest bee living in the forests of an island of Indonesia.

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  7. Life

    Slow sperm may fail at crashing ‘gates’ on their way to an egg

    A new study describes how sperm navigate narrow straits in the reproductive tract’s obstacle course to reach an egg.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Brain-zapping implants that fight depression are inching closer to reality

    Researchers are using electric jolts to correct the faulty brain activity that sparks depression.

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  9. Astronomy

    Ultima Thule is shaped like two lumpy pancakes

    Scientists are rethinking the shape of the space rock, once thought to be a snowman.

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  10. Animals

    How black soldier fly larvae can demolish a pizza so fast

    When gorging together, fly larvae create a living fountain that whooshes slowpokes up and away.

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  11. Earth

    Five explosive things the 2018 eruption taught us about Kilauea

    Kilauea’s 2018 eruption allowed volcanologists a clear window into the processes that have shaped and influenced the world’s most watched volcano.

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  12. Plants

    How light-farming chloroplasts morph into defensive warriors

    Researchers now know which protein triggers light-harvesting plant chloroplasts to turn into cell defenders when a pathogen attacks.

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