Life

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Life

    Experimental MERS vaccine shows promise

    An experimental vaccine against the MERS virus triggers immune protection, a new study finds.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Stiff cellular environment links obesity to breast cancer

    Obesity may directly support tumor growth by making a cell’s surroundings stiffer.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    ‘Vomiting device’ sounds gross but it helps study infections

    Scientists created a “vomiting device” to study how norovirus spreads through the air.

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  4. Animals

    Hummingbird tongues may work like micropumps

    Hummingbird tongues work as elastic micropumps instead of simple thin tubes, researchers say in latest round of a scientific debate.

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  5. Animals

    Another tiny frog species found in sky islands of Brazil

    Another new species of miniature frog has been discovered amongst the leaf litter in the high cloud forests of southern Brazil.

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  6. 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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  7. 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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  8. 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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  9. Psychology

    Baby marmosets imitate parents’ sounds

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

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  10. 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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  11. 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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  12. 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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