Life
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Plants
Ancient ozone holes may have sterilized forests 252 million years ago
Swaths of barren forest may have led to Earth’s greatest mass extinction.
- Animals
Trove of hummingbird flight data reveals secrets of nimble flying
Tweaks in muscle and wing form give different hummingbird species varying levels of agility.
By Susan Milius - Neuroscience
The wiring for walking developed long before fish left the sea
These strange walking fish might teach us about the evolutionary origins of our own ability to walk.
By Dan Garisto - Neuroscience
Watch nerve cells being born in the brains of living mice
For the first time, scientists have seen nerve cells being born in the brains of adult mice.
- Ecosystems
Humans are overloading the world’s freshwater bodies with phosphorus
Human activities are driving phosphorus levels in the world’s lakes and other freshwater bodies to a critical point.
- Animals
It’s a bad idea for a toad to swallow a bombardier beetle
Toads are tough. But there are some insects even they shouldn’t swallow.
By Susan Milius - Paleontology
This ancient creature looks like a spider with a tail
A newly discovered ancient creature looks like a spider and has silk spinners and spidery male sex organs.
By Susan Milius - Plants
Pollinators are usually safe from a Venus flytrap
A first-ever look at what pollinates the carnivorous Venus flytrap finds little overlap between pollinators and prey.
- Neuroscience
A blood test could predict the risk of Alzheimer’s disease
A blood test can predict the presence of an Alzheimer’s-related protein in the brain.
- Animals
A peek into polar bears’ lives reveals revved-up metabolisms
Polar bears have higher metabolisms than scientists thought. In a world with declining Arctic sea ice, that could spell trouble.
By Susan Milius - Animals
A killer whale gives a raspberry and says ‘hello’
Tests of imitating sounds finds that orcas can sort of mimic humans.
By Susan Milius - Life
Here’s how cells rapidly stuff two meters of DNA into microscopic capsules
Scientists have figured out how cells quickly pack up their chromosomes before a cell divides.