Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Puzzling cosmic signals, processed food defined and more reader feedback
Readers sort out a definition for processed food, discuss the benefits of tinkering with human DNA and more.
- Climate
Pink salmon threatened by freshwater acidification
Ocean acidification gets more attention, but freshwater systems are also acidifying. That’s a problem for young salmon, a new study finds.
- Neuroscience
Old fruit flies’ swagger restored with brain chemical dopamine
Replenishing the chemical communicator dopamine to a handful of nerve cells makes old flies feel frisky again.
- Health & Medicine
Genetic tweak turned plague bacterium deadly
Two genetic changes allowed plague bacteria to cause deadly lung infections and pandemic disease.
- Neuroscience
Pain may come in his and hers
Males and females rely on different kinds of cells to carry pain signals, a mouse study suggests.
- Tech
New app creates a searchable network of species worldwide
A free new app compiles millions of records of species worldwide and allows users to add sightings.
- Life
Alison Jolly’s last book chronicles efforts to save lemurs
In ‘Thank You, Madagascar,’ primatologist Alison Jolly, who spent decades studying lemurs, provides an insider’s account of the struggles that conservationists face.
- Animals
For dwarf mongooses, handstands aren’t just good fun
Dwarf mongooses may use marks laid down in handstand positions to gather information on rivals, a new study shows.
- Plants
Poppy yields the final secret to making morphine
Scientists have successfully transplanted most of the morphine synthesis pathway from poppies to yeast. Now the final step is ready to be put in place.
- Neuroscience
One path that fear takes in the brain discovered
By hijacking a newly discovered pathway in mice’s brains, scientists inspire fear.
- Health & Medicine
Spit test could provide early warning of head, neck cancers
A new study shows that signs of head and neck cancer can be detected in saliva and blood plasma even before tumors are clinically diagnosed.
- Life
How vitamin B12 makes pimples pop up
Vitamin B12 causes acne by altering metabolism of skin bacteria.
