Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
These caterpillars march. They fluff. They scare London.
Oak processionary moths have invaded England and threatened the pleasure of spring breezes.
- Animals
A deadly frog-killing fungus probably originated in East Asia
The disastrous form of Bd chytrid fungus could have popped up just 50 to 120 years ago.
- Life
There’s a genetic explanation for why warmer nests turn turtles female
Scientists have found a temperature-responsive gene that controls young turtles’ sex fate.
- Artificial Intelligence
This AI uses the same kind of brain wiring as mammals to navigate
This AI creates mental maps of its environment much like mammals do.
- Animals
Here’s how to use DNA to find elusive sharks
Hard-to-find sharks that divers and cameras miss appear in genetic traces in the ocean.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, starving tumors of oxygen proposed as weapon in cancer fight
Starving cancerous tumors of oxygen was proposed to help kill them. But the approach can make some cancer cells more aggressive.
- Health & Medicine
An enzyme involved in cancer and aging gets a close-up
The structure of telomerase, described with the greatest detail yet, may give researchers clues to cancer treatments and other telomerase-related illnesses.
- Animals
Fighting like an animal doesn’t always mean a duel to the death
Conflict resolution within species isn’t always deadly and often involves cost-benefit analyses.
- Genetics
Adapting to life in the north may have been a real headache
A cold-sensing protein has adapted to different local climates, also affecting risk of migraine.
- Animals
This ancient fowl bit like a dinosaur and pecked like a bird
A new fossil of Ichthyornis dispar helped scientists create a 3-D reconstruction of the ancient bird’s skull, shedding light on early bird evolution.
- Climate
Bull sharks and bottlenose dolphins are moving north as the ocean warms
Rising temperatures are making ocean waters farther north more hospitable for a variety of marine species.
- Particle Physics
Readers puzzled by particle physics and a papal decree
Readers had questions about neutrinoless double beta decay and the history of domesticated rabbits.
