Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Cities create accidental experiments in plant, animal evolution
To look for evolution in human-scale time, pick a city and watch a lizard. Or some clover.
- Animals
Reptile scales share evolutionary origin with hair, feathers
Hair, scales and feathers arose from same ancestral appendage.
- Animals
Insect debris fashion goes back to the Cretaceous
Ancient insects covered themselves in dirt and vegetation just as modern ones do, fossils preserved in amber suggest.
- Animals
Bacteria make male lacewings disappear
Scientists have tracked down why some green lacewings in Japan produce only female offspring: Bacteria kill off all the males early in life.
- Life
Scientists find clue to why mitochondrial DNA comes only from mom
Scientists have identified a protein that chops up the mitochondrial DNA in a dad’s sperm after it fertilizes an egg. The finding helps explain why mitochondrial DNA is usually passed on only by mothers.
- Life
New species of bacteria found to cause Lyme disease
Camping? Don’t forget the bug spray. Lyme disease covers new ground.
- Life
Fido and Fluffy could unleash drug-resistant microbes
After discovering resistant microbes in pets, scientists worry about the role of companion animals in the spread of resistant urinary infections.
- Animals
Baby birds’ brains selectively respond to dads’ songs
The neurons of young male birds are more active when listening to songs sung by dad than by strangers, a new study finds.
- Neuroscience
Newborn brain has to learn how to feed itself
Nerve cells in newborn mice can’t yet feed themselves.
- Health & Medicine
In malaria battle, indoor bug spraying has unintended consequence
Years of spraying indoors may inadvertently have push malaria-spreading mosquitoes to venture outdoors for a bite.
- Life
Benign-turned-deadly bacterium baffles scientists
Outbreak of Elizabethkingia continues to grow as disease investigators struggle to find source.
- Life
For cleanest hands, squirt and count to 30
Rubbing hands for 30 seconds is the most effective way to use hand sanitizer, a study of health care workers finds.
