Life

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Life

    Public, doctors alike confused about food allergies

    Gaps in understanding food allergies cause confusion and make it difficult to prevent, diagnose and treat them.

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  2. Astronomy

    Scientific success depends on finding light in darkness

    Editor in chief Eva Emerson discusses using cleverness and persistence to uncover scientific truths.

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  3. Life

    Mitochondria variants battle for cell supremacy

    Some mitochondria are more competitive than others, which could complicate treatments for mitochondrial diseases.

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  4. Animals

    Plant-eating mammals sport bigger bellies than meat eaters

    Mammalian plant eaters have bigger torsos than meat eaters, a new analysis confirms, but the same might not have held true for dinosaurs.

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  5. Animals

    Animals give clues to the origins of human number crunching

    Guppies, dogs, chickens, crows, spiders — lots of animals have number sense without knowing numbers.

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  6. Oceans

    Coral die-off in Great Barrier Reef reaches record levels

    Bleaching has killed more than two-thirds of corals in some parts of the Great Barrier Reef, scientists have confirmed.

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  7. Life

    Blue leaves help begonias harvest energy in low light

    The iridescent color of some begonias comes from tiny structures that also help the plant convert dim light into energy.

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  8. Microbes

    Cut leaves in bagged salads help Salmonella grow

    Juice from torn-up leafy greens helps Salmonella spread in bagged salads.

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  9. Life

    Tiny toxic proteins help gut bacteria defeat rivals

    A strain of E. coli makes competition-killing tiny proteins and soothes inflamed intestines.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Low social status leads to off-kilter immune system

    Low social status tips immune system toward inflammation seen in chronic diseases, a monkey study shows.

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  11. Animals

    Dogs form memories of experiences

    New experiments suggest that dogs have some version of episodic memory, allowing them to recall specific experiences.

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  12. Animals

    Now there are two bedbug species in the United States

    The tropical bedbug hadn’t been seen in Florida for decades. Now scientists have confirmed it has either resurfaced or returned.

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