Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Genetics
New era of human embryo gene editing begins
Gene editing of viable human embryos is happening, in and out of the public eye.
- Health & Medicine
It’s time to retire the five-second rule
Wet food can slurp bacteria off the floor in less than a second.
- Plants
Narrowed plumbing lets flower survive summer cold snaps
Ice barriers help alpine plants save their flowers during summer cold snaps.
- Genetics
Endurance training leaves no memory in muscles
Unlike strength training, endurance workouts left no genetic trace months later, calling into question idea of a general muscle memory.
- Earth
Natural ally against global warming not as strong as thought
Soils may take in far less carbon by the end of the century than previously predicted, exacerbating climate change.
- Genetics
Single exodus from Africa gave rise to today’s non-Africans
Genetics and climate studies differ on when modern humans left Africa.
- Life
Aneil Agrawal unites math and mess
Evolutionary geneticist Aneil Agrawal is equally at home with real and hypothetical fruit flies.
- Neuroscience
Jessica Cantlon seeks the origins of numerical thinking
Cognitive neuroscientist Jessica Cantlon wants to find out how humans understand numbers and where that understanding comes from.
- Humans
Lawrence David’s gut check gets personal
Computational biologist Lawrence David regularly opens himself to new scientific challenges, including tracking his own microbiome.
- Neuroscience
Jeremy Freeman seeks to simplify complex brain science
As a group leader at the Janelia Research Campus, Jeremy Freeman is equal parts neuroscientist, computer coder and data visualization whiz.
- Oceans
Melissa Omand’s clever tech follows the fate of ocean carbon
Drawn to the water early, oceanographer Melissa Omand now leads research cruises studying how carbon and nutrients move through the seas.
- Life
How one scientist’s gut microbes changed over a year
Computational biologist Lawrence David chronicled changes in his gut microbes for a year.
