Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- Agriculture
How does a crop’s environment shape a food’s smell and taste?
Scientific explorations of terroir — the soil, climate and orientation in which crops grow — hint at influences on flavors and aromas.
- Animals
This hummingbird survives cold nights by nearly freezing itself solid
To survive cold Andean nights, the black metaltail saves energy by cooling itself to record-low temperatures, entering a state of suspended animation.
- Animals
Sea butterflies’ shells determine how the snails swim
New aquarium videos show that sea butterflies of various shapes and sizes flutter through water differently.
- Ecosystems
Protecting half the planet could help solve climate change and save species
An analysis lays out where new land protections could complement existing protected areas to achieve various conservation and climate goals.
- Life
This parasitic plant eavesdrops on its host to know when to flower
Dodder plants have no leaves to sense when to bloom, so the parasites rely on a chemical cue from their hosts instead.
- Genetics
Strict new guidelines lay out a path to heritable human gene editing
But scientists say making changes in DNA that can be passed on to future generations still isn’t safe and effective, yet.
- Animals
Flamboyant cuttlefish save their bright patterns for flirting, fighting and fleeing
A new field study of flamboyant cuttlefish shows they don’t always live up to their reputation.
- Health & Medicine
In a first, a person’s immune system fought HIV — and won
Some rare people may purge most HIV from their bodies, leaving only broken copies of the virus or copies locked in molecular prisons, from which there is no escape.
- Microbes
If bacteria band together, they can survive for years in space
Tiny clumps of bacteria can survive at least three years in outer space, raising the prospect of interplanetary travel by microbial life.
- Animals
Female hyenas kill off cubs in their own clans
Along with starvation and mauling by lions, infanticide leads as a cause of hyena cub death. Such killings may serve to enforce the social order.
- Animals
Genetically modified mosquitoes have been OK’d for a first U.S. test flight
After a decade of heated debate, free-flying swarms aimed at shrinking dengue-carrying mosquito populations gets a nod for 2021 in the Florida Keys.
