Life

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

More Stories in Life

  1. Animals

    A newly discovered cell helps pythons poop out the bones of their prey

    The cells helps the snakes absorb the bones of their prey — and might show up in other animals that chomp their meals whole.

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  2. Paleontology

    How an ancient marine predator snuck up on its prey

    Serrations at the edges of a fossilized flipper of the ancient marine reptile Temnodontosaurussuggests it may have been able to swim silently.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Protein signatures may one day tell brain diseases apart before symptoms

    Blood tests could pave the way for distinguishing between Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and some dementias, aiding early treatment for brain diseases.

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  4. Paleontology

    How fast did dinosaurs really go? Birds walking in mud provide new clues

    Tracks of dinosaur footprints can hint at how fast the extinct animals moved. Here’s how guinea fowl can help fact-check those assumptions.

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  5. Chemistry

    Gut microbes may flush ‘forever chemicals’ from the body

    Experiments in mice show that some gut bacteria can absorb toxic PFAS chemicals, allowing animals to expel them through feces.

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  6. Animals

    Greenland sled dog DNA is a window into the Arctic’s archaeological past

    A genomic analysis of Greenland’s Qimmeq dogs suggest they and their human partners arrived on the island centuries earlier than previously thought.

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  7. Climate

    Trees can’t get up and walk away, but forests can

    In fantasy worlds, trees like the Lord of the Rings’ Ents are agile and mobile. In the real world, they’re slow.

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  8. Animals

    As bird flu evolves, keeping it out of farm flocks is getting harder

    New versions of the H5N1 virus are increasingly adept at spreading. Suggestions to either let it rip in poultry or vaccinate the birds could backfire.

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  9. Oceans

    Deep-sea mining could start soon — before we understand its risks

    The U.S. push to mine international waters for metals defies global efforts to control and protect these fragile ecosystems.

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