Life

More Stories in Life

  1. An image of a 3-D reconstruction of a spiny mouse skeleton on a black background. The mouse's tail is shown in red with a close-up of the plates that sit in the rodent's skin.
    Life

    Spiny mice have armadillo-like armor in their tails

    CT scans revealed the bony plates in the rodents’ tails. The hidden armor may protect against attacking predators or other spiny mice.

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  2. Two images of a brain. The image on the left shows a forward-facing brain scan with a purple section in the middle and yellow sections on the bottom, both with red dots scattered throughout the colored sections. The image on the right is a profile view of the same brain with the same colored section.
    Neuroscience

    Brain implants have revealed a signature for chronic pain

    Brain implants in four people with chronic pain gave researchers an inside look at the debilitating condition.

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  3. A close up photo of a mosquito resting on a log.
    Life

    Microwaving an insecticide restores its mosquito-killing power

    Heated deltamethrin kills mosquitoes resistant to its usual form. Scientists are working to add the improved insecticide into bed nets.

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  4. image of an octopus
    Animals

    Octopuses and squid are masters of RNA editing while leaving DNA intact

    Modifications to RNA could explain the intelligence and flexibility of shell-less cephalopods.

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  5. A photo of a bobcat standing in front of a snowy background.
    Life

    Large predators push coyotes and bobcats near people and to their demise

    Coyotes and bobcats hide near people when wolves, cougars and other large predators are close-by, putting the smaller carnivores at a higher risk of dying at human hands.

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  6. An illustration of tau proteins, in orange, with blue and purple proteins floating around.
    Neuroscience

    A rare mutation helped one man stave off Alzheimer’s for decades

    The brain of a Colombian man with an inherited form of Alzheimer’s may hint at ways to halt or slow the progression of the disease.

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  7. An image of a rainbow tie dye background with two frogs, ants, fish and coral overlays.
    Animals

    The Sonoran Desert toad can alter your mind — it’s not the only animal

    Their psychedelic and other potentially mind-bending compounds didn't evolve to give people a trip.

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  8. A photo looking into a drill hole in West Antarctica. White ice is seen on the edges of the frame which turns into a gradient of light blue to dark blue in the center circle of the image.
    Life

    In one lake deep under Antarctica’s ice, microbes feast on ancient carbon

    Microorganisms living in a lake beneath the ice sheet in West Antarctica feed on ocean carbon that was deposited 6,000 years ago.

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  9. A shiver of scalloped hammerhead sharks swim near the surface, in this underwater photograph. These endotherms may thermoregulate by closing their gills as they go deeper.
    Animals

    Why some hammerhead sharks seem to ‘hold their breath’ during dives

    Scalloped hammerhead sharks in Hawaii seem to limit the use of their gills during deep dives to prevent losing heat to their surroundings.

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