Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Tail vibrations may have preceded evolution of rattlesnake rattle
The rattle on a rattlesnake evolved just once. A new study contends it may have come out of a common behavior — tail vibration — that snakes use to deter predators.
- Animals
For snowy owls, wintering on the prairie might be normal
Some snowy owls leave the Arctic for winter. That’s not a desperate move, new study says.
- Humans
Brain’s blood appetite grew faster than its size
Over evolutionary time, the energy demands of hominid brains increased faster than their volume, a new study finds.
- Animals
Dog brains divide language tasks much like humans do
Dogs understand what we say separately from how we say it.
- Health & Medicine
Tasmanian devils evolve resistance to contagious cancer
Tasmanian devils are evolving resistance to a deadly contagious cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Mosquito moms can pass Zika to offspring
In the lab, Zika virus can pass from a female mosquito to her eggs, suggesting how infections can flare up again after adult insects dwindle.
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- Health & Medicine
Clean inside those bagpipes — and trumpets and clarinets
Bagpipes’ moist interiors may be the perfect breeding ground for yeasts and molds.
- Neuroscience
Cool nerve cells help mice beat heat
A new study pinpoints fever-busting cells in mice’s brains.
- Genetics
Genes help snub-nosed monkeys live the high life
Snub nosed monkeys have certain genetic variants that help them breathe easy in low oxygen.
- Life
Lyme bacteria swap ‘catch bonds’ to navigate blood vessels
Lyme bacteria use same tricks as white blood cells to navigate blood stream.
- Neuroscience
Computers refine epilepsy treatment
Surgeons harnessed computers in 1966 to pinpoint source of epilepsy in the brain.
