Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Bones make hormones that communicate with the brain and other organs
Bones send out hormone signals that chat with other parts of the body, studies in mice show. What influence these hormones have in people, though, remain a mystery.
- Health & Medicine
Protein in Parkinson’s provokes the immune system
The immune system recognizes parts of a protein linked to Parkinson’s disease as foreign, triggering an autoimmune response.
- Genetics
DNA reveals how cats achieved world domination
Analysis of 9,000 years of cat remains suggests two waves of migration
- Paleontology
New fossils shake up history of amphibians with no legs
The oldest near-relative of today’s snake-shaped caecilians could have an unexpected backstory.
- Paleontology
Ancient attack marks show ocean predators got scarier
Killer snails and other ocean predators that drill through shells have grown bigger over evolutionary time.
- Animals
Facial recognition changes a wasp’s brain
A new study maps genes at play in a paper wasp’s brain during facial recognition.
- Life
How bearded dragons switch their sex
RNA editing might affect reptile sex determination at temperature extremes.
- Health & Medicine
New heart attack treatment uses photosynthetic bacteria to make oxygen
Photosynthetic bacteria can produce oxygen to keep rat heart muscles healthy after a heart attack.
- Climate
Readers question climate’s freshwater effects
Warming lakes, windmills for the Arctic, mosquito control and more in reader feedback.
- Life
Ancient DNA shakes up the elephant family tree
DNA from straight-tusked elephant fossils is forcing scientists to reconsider the history of elephant evolution.
- Life
Ladybugs fold their wings like origami masters
Ladybug wings could lead to new foldable technologies.
- Health & Medicine
Live antibiotics use bacteria to kill bacteria
Certain bacteria will destroy other bacteria without harming humans. They may be an answer to antibiotic-resistant infections.
