Life
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Genetics
‘Three-parent babies’ explained
Several in vitro techniques can produce babies with three biological parents.
- Animals
Melatonin makes midshipman fish sing
Melatonin lets people sleep but starts male midshipman fish melodiously humming their hearts out.
By Susan Milius - Oceans
Reef rehab could help threatened corals make a comeback
Reefs are under threat from rising ocean temperatures. Directed spawning, microfragmenting and selective breeding may help.
- Animals
Berries may give yellow woodpeckers a red dye job
A diet of invasive honeysuckle berries may be behind stray red feathers in woodpeckers called yellow-shafted flickers.
- Life
In a first, mouse eggs grown from skin cells
Stem cells grown in ovary-mimicking conditions in a lab dish can make healthy mouse offspring, but technique still needs work.
- Neuroscience
Out-of-sync body clock causes more woes than sleepiness
The ailment, called circadian-time sickness, can be described with Bayesian math, scientists propose.
- Ecosystems
‘Citizen Scientist’ exalts ordinary heroes in conservation science
Journalist Mary Ellen Hannibal’s “Citizen Scientist” tells tales of ordinary people contributing to science.
- Animals
Be careful what you say around jumping spiders
Sensitive leg hairs may let jumping spiders hear sounds through the air at much greater distances than researchers imagined.
By Susan Milius - Life
Placenta protectors no match for toxic Strep B pigment
Strep B uses a toxic pigment made of fat to kill immune system cells, spurring preterm labor and dangerous infections, a monkey study shows.
- Life
One-celled life possessed tools for going multicellular
Unicellular ancestors of animals had molecular tools used by multicellular life.
- Genetics
How gene editing is changing what a lab animal looks like
What makes a good animal model? New techniques bring opportunities and challenges to model organisms.
- Animals
Hot and spicy pain signals get blocked in naked mole-rats
Naked mole-rats have a protein that interrupts pain signal.