Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Climate
Skimpy sea ice linked to reindeer starvation on land
Unseasonably scant sea ice may feed rain storms inland that lead to ice catastrophes that kill Yamal reindeer and threaten herders’ way of life.
- Neuroscience
Sounds and glowing screens impair mouse brains
Too much light and noise screws up developing mice’s brains.
- Climate
There’s something cool about Arctic bird poop
Ammonia from seabird poop helps brighten clouds in the Arctic, slightly cooling the region’s climate.
- Neuroscience
Infant brains have powerful reactions to fear
Babies can recognize facial emotions, especially fear, as early as 5 months old.
- Life
Lichens are an early warning system for forest health
Lichens, fascinating mosaics of fungi and algae or cyanobacteria, are made for sensing environmental change.
- 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.
