Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Ecosystems
Trapped under ice, light-loving algae grow in the dark Arctic winter
Blocked off from nearly all light beneath a thick layer of ice and snow in the winter, marine phytoplankton in the Arctic still find a way to thrive.
- Space
Hope for life on Venus survives for centuries against all odds
Early scientists often assumed that Venus, though hotter than Earth, hosted life.
- Life
Life on Earth may have begun in hostile hot springs
What researchers learn at hot springs and seafloor vents may guide the search for life on icy moons and Mars.
- Animals
A beaked whale’s nearly four-hour-long dive sets a new record
The animals may rely on large stores of oxygen, a slow metabolism and the ability to tolerate lactic acid to go for hours without surfacing for air.
- Neuroscience
A mother mouse’s gut microbes help wire her pup’s brain
The pups of mice lacking gut microbes, and the compounds they make, have altered nerve cells in part of the brain and a lowered sensitivity to touch.
- Animals
A tiny crustacean fossil contains roughly 100-million-year-old giant sperm
Giant sperm preserved in an ancient ostracod may be the oldest known sperm fossil, showing that giant sperm have existed at least 100 million years.
- Animals
Cheap, innovative venom treatments could save tens of thousands of snakebite victims
Momentum is building to finally tackle a neglected health problem that strikes poor, rural communities.
- Health & Medicine
What will happen when COVID-19 and the flu collide this fall?
As the Northern Hemisphere braces for a coronavirus-flu double hit, it’s unclear if it’ll be a deadly combo or one virus will squeeze out the other.
- Environment
What we know and don’t know about wildfire smoke’s health risks
As wildfires become more frequent and severe in California, Oregon and throughout the West Coast, concerns rise about harmful air pollution.
- Microbes
50 years ago, scientists were on the trail of a brain-eating amoeba
In 1970, scientists were studying a brain-eating amoeba that had been implicated in a newfound disease. Today, infections by the parasite are still poorly understood.
- Paleontology
Ancient Lystrosaurus tusks may show the oldest signs of a hibernation-like state
Oddball ancestors of mammals called Lystrosaurus might have slowed way down during polar winters.
- Environment
This moth may outsmart smog by learning to like pollution-altered aromas
In the lab, scientists taught tobacco hawkmoths that a scent changed by ozone is from a favorite flower.
