Life

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Microbes

    Bacteria in flowers may boost honeybees’ healthy gut microbes

    Honeybees may deliver doses of probiotics to the hive to help feed baby bees’ microbiome.

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  2. Chemistry

    Three kids’ science books offer fun, fascinating experiments

    No matter what interests kids, there’s a do-it-yourself science book for them. Here are three with entertaining and educational options.

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  3. Chemistry

    Pathway pieced together to make opiates in yeast

    Scientists have engineered yeast to make sugar into thebaine, a precursor to opiates such as morphine.

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  4. Psychology

    Baby marmosets imitate parents’ sounds

    Vocal learning may work similarly in marmoset monkeys, songbirds and humans.

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  5. Animals

    A UFO would stress out a bear

    Scientists need to know how animals, such as bears, react to the drones being used increasingly to study them.

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  6. Animals

    Light pollution may disrupt firefly sex

    Females of a common big dipper firefly weren’t as flashy when forced to flirt in LED light pollution.

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  7. Animals

    Cougars may provide a net benefit to humans

    Cougars have disappeared from the eastern United States. If they returned, they’d kill deer, preventing many car crashes, scientists find.

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  8. Neuroscience

    Shifting views of brain cells, and other fresh perspectives

    The details emerging from the latest work on glial cells are sure to yield more insights as scientists continue their struggle to understand the mind.

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  9. Astronomy

    Lucy’s new neighbor, downloading New Horizon’s data and more reader feedback

    Readers discuss why Pluto's data will take so long to get to Earth, the role the cerebellum plays in creative thinking and more.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Football games come with more head hits than practices do

    As football intensifies from practice to games, the number of impacts increases, a new study finds.

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  11. Genetics

    How an octopus’s cleverness may have evolved

    Scientists have sequenced the octopus genome, revealing molecular similarities to mammals.

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  12. Science & Society

    Monster fish, forensics and space exploration on display

    Exhibits and opera infuse science into their experience.

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