Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Songs prep the brains of finches yet to hatch for a hot world
Adult finches make "heat calls" as the temperature rises. Exposure to the song prepares their unhatched young's brains for the heat.
- Health & Medicine
Measles has no treatments. Changing that may not be easy
Vaccination remains the priority, but some researchers are looking for drugs to fight the virus in people who don't get the shot.
- Earth
Earth’s stratosphere is a mysterious superhighway for microbes
Well-known microbes that grow on our crops, our gardens, even our skin have been found thriving at two to three times the flying height of a commercial jetliner.
- Health & Medicine
Engineered hookworms could one day dispense drugs from inside your gut
In a first, researchers genetically modified hookworms. It’s a step toward turning the parasites into living pharmacies.
- Paleontology
Frozen squirrel poop hints at sights and smells of Ice Age ecosystems
DNA preserved in ancient scat reveals what Yukon ground squirrels ate and what animals shared their world.
- Animals
These birds clack their wing bones together to woo mates at night
During courtship, male scissor-tailed nightjars crack their wings together to make a sharp snapping sound. It's the result of colliding arm bones.
- Paleontology
Some pterosaurs may have boasted bold iridescence
A new analysis of a 120-million-year-old fossil suggests at least one pterosaur species shimmered in iridescent greens and magentas.
- Animals
Honeybees and shrimp are now getting vaccinated
A shrimp vaccine for commercial use could protect the environment and prove vaccines aren’t just for vertebrates.
- Animals
This tiny, blue octopus is new to science
The deep-sea octopus is fully mature despite fitting in a palm, a trait researchers think may help it reproduce faster than larger relatives.
- Animals
Bumblebees can solve problems on their own
With no training, bumblebees can work out how to use a ball like a ladder to feed on sugar from an out-of-reach flower.
- Animals
A secret to making a queen bee may lie in the wax around it
Queen-cell wax helps shape honeybee queen development, challenging the idea that royal jelly alone makes a queen, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Curbing Congo’s Ebola outbreak is hampered by unknowns about the virus
Answers to key questions could help public health officials develop Ebola treatments, predict the outbreak’s trajectory and prevent a future one.
