Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Science & Society
2017 delivered humility, and proved our potential
Acting Editor in Chief Elizabeth Quill reflects on some of the top scientific stories of 2017.
- Genetics
CRISPR gene editing moved into new territory in 2017
Scientists edited viable human embryos with CRISPR/Cas9 this year.
- Climate
The Larsen C ice shelf break has sparked groundbreaking research
The hubbub over the iceberg that broke off Larsen C may have died down, but scientists are just getting warmed up to study the aftermath.
- Health & Medicine
Approval of gene therapies for two blood cancers led to an ‘explosion of interest’ in 2017
The first gene therapies approved in the United States are treating patients with certain types of leukemia and lymphoma.
- Neuroscience
Brains of former football players showed how common traumatic brain injuries might be
Examinations of NFL players’ postmortem brains turned up chronic traumatic encephalopathy in 99 percent of samples in large dataset.
- Health & Medicine
Zika cases are down, but researchers prepare for the virus’s return
The number of Zika cases in the Western Hemisphere have dropped this year, but the need for basic scientific and public health research of the virus remains strong.
- Animals
Ticks had a taste for dinosaur blood
A tick found trapped in amber is evidence the bloodsuckers preyed on feathered dinosaurs, a new study says.
- Life
Mini brains may wrinkle and fold just like ours
Brain organoids show how ridges and wrinkles may form.
- Life
Not all of a cell’s protein-making machines do the same job
Ribosomes may switch up their components to specialize in building proteins.
- Animals
Once settled, immigrants play important guard roles in mongoose packs
Dwarf mongoose packs ultimately benefit from taking in immigrants, but there’s an assimilation period.
- Animals
This ancient marsupial lion had an early version of ‘bolt-cutter’ teeth
Extinct dog-sized predator crunched with unusual slicers toward the back of its jaw.
- Health & Medicine
When tumors fuse with blood vessels, clumps of breast cancer cells can spread
Breast cancer tumors may merge with blood vessels to help the cancer spread.
