Video
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Astronomy
Ultima Thule is shaped like two lumpy pancakes
Scientists are rethinking the shape of the space rock, once thought to be a snowman.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Neuroscience
Rocking puts adults to sleep faster and makes slumber deeper
People sleep better when their beds are gently rocked, a small study finds.
- Animals
Young emperor penguins brave icy, winter waters in their first year
Young emperor penguins learn survival skills on their own, including how to navigate Antarctica’s icy winter ocean.
- Paleontology
A four-legged robot hints at how ancient tetrapods walked
Using fossils, computer simulations and a life-size walking robot, researchers re-created how an early tetrapod may have made tracks.
