Life

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Neuroscience

    Spinal cord work-around reanimates paralyzed hand

    A neural prosthesis can bypass a severed spinal cord, allowing a paralyzed hand to once again move.

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  2. Climate

    Pollen becoming bee junk food as CO2 rises

    Rising CO2 lowers protein content in pollen, threatening nutrition for bees.

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  3. Plants

    New species of tumbleweed is just as bad as its parents

    Two species of invasive tumbleweeds hybridized into a third. A new study finds it probably will be invasive, too.

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  4. Genetics

    Some people are resistant to genetic disease

    People who should have genetic diseases but don’t may point to new treatments.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    This week in Zika: New mouse model, virus vs. placenta, nerve insulation loss

    In three new papers, scientists present a tool for studying Zika, strike down a theory of infection and offer a broad look at what the virus does to the brain.

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  6. Genetics

    Researchers edit genes in human embryos for second time

    Researchers in China deploy CRISPR to alter genes in human embryos again — this time to make cells HIV-resistant.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    A sugar can melt away cholesterol

    A sugar called cyclodextrin removes cholesterol from hardened arteries in mouse studies.

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  8. Climate

    Science’s inconvenient (but interesting) uncertainties

    In the latest issue of Science News, Editor in Chief Eva Emerson talks climate change, mouth microbes, and synthetic life.

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  9. Oceans

    Readers question ocean health

    Ocean plastics, ant behavior, pollution solutions and more in reader feedback.

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  10. Animals

    A sperm whale’s head is built for ramming

    Computer simulations of a sperm whale’s head show that an organ called the junk may help protect the brain when ramming other whales — or ships.

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  11. Animals

    Piggybacking tadpoles are epic food beggars

    Tadpoles beg so frantically among mimic poison frogs that researchers check to see whether they’re just scamming.

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  12. Life

    Typhoid toxin aids survival in mice

    A DNA-damaging bacterial protein may prolong the lives of infected animals.

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