Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Neuroscience
Newly discovered cells in mice can sense four of the five tastes
Some cells in mice can sense bitter, sweet, sour and umami. Without the cells, some flavor signals don’t get to the ultimate tastemaker — the brain.
- Life
Climate change, not hunters, may have killed off woolly rhinos
Ancient DNA indicates that numbers of woolly rhinos held steady long after people arrived on the scene.
- Life
A single molecule may entice normally solitary locusts to form massive swarms
Scientists pinpoint a compound emitted by locusts that could inform new ways of controlling the pests.
- Health & Medicine
How two coronavirus drugs for cats might help humans fight COVID-19
Scientists are exploring if drugs for a disease caused by a coronavirus that infects only cats might help also people infected with the coronavirus.
- Neuroscience
New guidance on brain death could ease debate over when life ends
Brain death can be a tricky concept. Clarity from an international group of doctors may help identify when the brain has stopped working for good.
- Animals
How tuatara live so long and can withstand cool weather
Tuatara may look like your average lizard, but they’re not. Now, researchers have deciphered the rare reptiles’ genome, or genetic instruction book.
- Animals
Penguin poop spotted from space ups the tally of emperor penguin colonies
High-res satellite images reveal eight new breeding sites for the world’s largest penguins on Antarctica, including the first reported ones offshore.
- Life
Wild bees add about $1.5 billion to yields for just six U.S. crops
Native bees help pollinate blueberries, cherries and other crops on commercial farms.
- Life
Water beetles can live on after being eaten and excreted by a frog
After being eaten by a frog, some water beetles can scurry through the digestive tract and emerge on the other side, alive and well.
- Animals
Some spiders may spin poisonous webs laced with neurotoxins
The sticky silk threads of spider webs may be hiding a toxic secret: potent neurotoxins that paralyze a spider’s prey.
- Ecosystems
To save Appalachia’s endangered mussels, scientists hatched a bold plan
Biologists have just begun to learn whether their bold plan worked to save the golden riffleshell, a freshwater mussel teetering on the brink of extinction.
- Plants
This parasitic plant consists of just flashy flowers and creepy suckers
With only four known species, Langsdorffia are thieves stripped down to their essentials.
