Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Plants
Defense hormones guide plant roots’ mix of microbes
Plants use salicylic acid to attract some bacteria to roots and repel others.
- Neuroscience
How screams shatter the brain
The acoustical properties of screams make them hard to ignore, a new study suggests.
- Animals
Birds learn what danger sounds like
In just two days, superb fairy-wrens learned to recognize an unfamiliar alarm call as a sign that a predator loomed.
- Genetics
Melonomics: Sounds like a cancer, smells like a melon
The project that published the first melon genome dubbed itself melonomics.
- Life
Shifted waking hours may pave the way to shifting metabolism
Shift workers are at higher risk for obesity and metabolic problems. Scientists are working hard to understand why the night shift makes our hormones go awry.
- Neuroscience
‘Speed cells’ found in rats’ brains
Newly discovered “speed cells” clock rats’ swiftness.
- Animals
Feeding seabirds may give declining populations a boost
Supplementing the diets of kittiwakes with additional food might give fledglings a head start, a new study finds.
- Neuroscience
Putting time’s mysteries in order
Investigating both the orderly and disorderly dimensions of time provides the focus for a special issue of Science News.
- Earth
Bringing mammoths back, life on early Earth and more reader feedback
Readers debate the pros and cons of reviving extinct species, discuss the odd light-processing machinery of the eye and more.
- Neuroscience
Special Report: Dimensions of Time
Science News writers report on the latest scientific investigations into time’s place in the physical, biological and mental worlds.
- Neuroscience
How the brain perceives time
To perceive time, the brain relies on internal clocks that precisely orchestrate movement, sensing, memories and learning.
- Genetics
Enormous quantities may soon be called ‘genomical’
Genetic data may soon reach beyond astronomical proportions.
