Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Neuroscience
Zap to the head leads to fat loss
Stimulating the vestibular nerve led people to shed fat in a small trial.
- Life
Website turns Alzheimer’s research into a game
A new game assists Alzheimer’s researchers in the hunt for stalled blood vessels in the brains of mice.
- Animals
Narwhals are really, really good at echolocation
Audio recordings from the Arctic suggest that narwhals take directional sonar to the extreme.
- Animals
Narwhals are really, really good at echolocation
Audio recordings from the Arctic suggest that narwhals take directional sonar to the extreme.
- Life
British red squirrels serve as leprosy reservoir
Red squirrels in the British Isles can harbor the bacteria that cause leprosy.
- Life
Protein mobs kill cells that most need those proteins to survive
A protein engineered to aggregate gives clues about how clumpy proteins kill brain cells.
- Neuroscience
Giggling rats help reveal how brain creates joy
Rats relish a good tickle, which activates nerve cells in a part of the brain that detects touch.
- Paleontology
Dragon dinosaur met a muddy end
‘Mud dragon’ fossil discovered in China suggests that dinosaurs’ last days were an active time of evolution.
- Animals
Old bonobos have bad eyesight — just like us
As bonobos age, they lose their ability to see things close up, a new study suggests.
- Climate
CO2-loving plants can counter human emissions
Plants temporarily halted the acceleration of rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, new research suggests.
- Animals
Most illegal ivory is less than three years old
Most of the ivory seized by law enforcement in the last decade doesn’t come from elephants poached many years ago.
- Animals
Most illegal ivory is less than three years old
Most of the ivory seized by law enforcement in the last decade doesn’t come from elephants poached many years ago.
