Life

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Environment

    A year long expedition spotlights night life in the Arctic winter

    Scientists anchored to an ice floe near the North Pole are investigating how life survives polar night and what changes will occur as the Arctic continues to warm.

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  2. Life

    The Great Barrier Reef is suffering its most widespread bleaching ever recorded

    Major bleaching events are recurring with increasing frequency on the Great Barrier Reef, hindering its recovery.

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  3. Genetics

    The PBS documentary ‘The Gene’ showcases genetics’ promise and pitfalls

    A film from executive producer Ken Burns delivers an unfiltered history of genetics, showing how the science has helped and hurt people.

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  4. Life

    Algae use flagella to trot, gallop and move with gaits all their own

    Single-celled microalgae, with no brains, can coordinate their “limbs” into a trot or fancier gait.

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  5. Chemistry

    Beets bleed red but a chemistry tweak can create a blue hue

    A new blue dye derived from beet juice might prove an alternative to synthetic blue dyes in foods, cosmetics or fabrics.

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  6. Neuroscience

    Mice’s facial expressions can reveal a wide range of emotions

    Pleasure, pain, fear and other feelings can be reflected in mice’s faces, sophisticated computational analyses show.

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  7. Animals

    A cat appears to have caught the coronavirus, but it’s complicated

    While a cat in Belgium seems to be the first feline infected with SARS-CoV-2, it’s still unclear how susceptible pets are to the disease.

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  8. Animals

    Parasitic worm populations are skyrocketing in some fish species used in sushi

    Fishes worldwide harbor 283 times the number of Anisakis worms as fishes in the 1970s. Whether that’s a sign of environmental decline or recovery is unclear.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    There’s no evidence the coronavirus jumped from pangolins to people

    Pangolins captured in anti-smuggling activities in southern China were found to harbor viruses related to the new coronavirus.

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  10. Paleontology

    Fossils of a new dromaeosaur date to the end of the Age of Dinosaurs

    Fossils from a new dromaeosaur recovered from New Mexico suggest these fierce predators were diversifying up to the end of the Age of Dinosaurs.

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  11. Genetics

    No, the coronavirus wasn’t made in a lab. A genetic analysis shows it’s from nature

    Scientists took conspiracy theories seriously and analyzed the coronavirus to reveal its natural origins.

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  12. Genetics

    Squid edit their genetic material in a uniquely weird place

    Some squids’ seeming ability to edit RNA on the fly could help scientists develop a technique much like the DNA-editing tool CRISPR, but for RNA.

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