Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Paleontology
Why the turtle got its shell
Fossil evidence suggests that turtles’ ancestors started to form precursors to today’s shells to help them dig, not to protect themselves.
- Health & Medicine
Still mysterious, aging may prove malleable
Our editor in chief discusses the science of aging.
- Life
A healthy old age may trump immortality
Despite disagreements about what aging is and isn't, scientists have reached a radical consensus: It can be delayed.
- Neuroscience
The brain’s blueprint for aging is set early in life
The brain's decline may mirror its beginning, offering clues to aging.
- Animals
Organisms age in myriad ways — and some might not even bother
There is great variety in how animals and plants deteriorate (or don’t) over time.
- Animals
Readers mesmerized by ‘Strange visions’
Animal vision, ice-making microbes, brain maps and more reader feedback.
- Animals
What animals’ life spans can tell us about how people age
The animal world can offer insights into human longevity.
- Animals
When bird populations shrink, females fly away
In small and shrinking populations of willow warblers, males outnumber females. That’s because girls choose to join bigger groups, a new study finds.
- Animals
How snails breathe through snorkels on land
Shells with a tube counterintuitively sealed at the end have hidden ways to let Asian snails snorkel while sealed in their shells.
- Animals
How snails breathe through snorkels on land
Shells with a tube counterintuitively sealed at the end have hidden ways to let Asian snails snorkel while sealed in their shells.
- Neuroscience
Post-stroke shifts in gut bacteria could cause additional brain injury
The gut’s microbial population influences how mice fare after a stroke, suggesting that poop pills might one day prove therapeutic following brain injury.
- Animals
Beetles that battle make better moms than ones that never fight
Female burying beetles that have to fight before reproducing spend more time caring for offspring than beetles with no fighting experience, a new study finds.
