Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
‘Darwin’s Backyard’ chronicles naturalist’s homespun experiments
In the new book Darwin’s Backyard, a biologist explores Charles Darwin’s family life, as well as four decades’ worth of his at-home experiments.
- Astronomy
Inquiries about the moon’s twilight zone, and more reader feedback
Readers had questions about the moon's tidal locking, quantum communication, microneedles and more.
- Paleontology
This ancient sea worm sported a crowd of ‘claws’ around its mouth
A newly discovered species of arrow worm that lived over half a billion years ago had about twice as many head spines as its modern kin.
- Life
Embryos kill off male tissue to become female
Female embryos actively dismantle male reproductive tissue, a textbook-challenging study suggests.
- Neuroscience
How an itch hitches a ride to the brain
Scientists have figured out how your brain registers the sensation of itch.
- Health & Medicine
A new tool could one day improve Lyme disease diagnosis
There soon could be a way to differentiate between Lyme disease and a similar tick-associated illness.
- Animals
Giant larvaceans could be ferrying ocean plastic to the seafloor
Giant larvaceans could mistakenly capture microplastics, in addition to food, in their mucus houses and transfer them to the seafloor in their feces.
- Animals
These spiders crossed an ocean to get to Australia
The nearest relatives of an Australian trapdoor spider live in Africa. They crossed the Indian Ocean to get to Australia, a new study suggests.
- Life
Polluted water: It’s where sea snakes wear black
Reptile counterpart proposed for textbook example of evolution favoring darker moths amid industrial soot.
- Astronomy
What do plants and animals do during an eclipse?
A citizen science experiment will gather the biggest dataset to date of animal responses to a total eclipse.
- Animals
Why midsize animals are the fastest
New analysis delves into the mystery of why medium-sized animals are speedier than bigger ones.
- Genetics
Gene editing creates virus-free piglets
Pigs engineered to lack infectious viruses may one day produce transplant organs.
