Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Ants’ size and profession controlled by chemical tags on DNA
Epigenetic marks determine whether female Florida carpenter ants are soldiers or foragers.
- Paleontology
12 amazing fossil finds of 2015
From an ancient sponge ancestor to the Carolina Butcher, scientists learned a lot about life on Earth this year.
- Animals
Lemurs chat only with their best friends
Ring-tailed lemurs maintain friendships built with grooming by calling to each other, a new study finds.
- Science & Society
These truisms proved false in 2015
Don’t always believe what you hear. These truisms turned out to be false in 2015.
- Animals
Puff adders appear ‘invisible’ to noses
The snakey scent of puff adders proves difficult for even sensitive animal noses to detect.
- Paleontology
Bubbles may have sheltered Earth’s early life
Bubbles formed on ancient shorelines offer scientists a new place to look for traces of early life.
- Health & Medicine
Anatomy of the South Korean MERS outbreak
The Middle East respiratory syndrome virus, which infected 186 people in South Korea in 2015, quickly spread within and between hospitals via a handful of “superspreaders.”
- Agriculture
Number of wild bees drops where they’re needed most
Wild bee abundance in the United States is lowest in agricultural regions, according to a new model.
- Life
Tweaking the pattern equations
A more than 60-year-old theory about how patterns in nature form gets an update.
- Animals
Fog ferries mercury from the ocean to land animals
Scientists have traced mercury in the waters of the Pacific Ocean to animals, including mountain lions, in California.
- Life
Upending daily rhythm triggers fat cell growth
Constant production of stress hormone spurs fat growth.
- Genetics
Roosters run afoul of genetic rules
Moms aren’t always the only ones that pass mitochondrial DNA to offspring, a study of chickens finds.
