Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Simple change to fishing nets could save endangered whales’ lives
Making industrial fishing ropes weaker would reduce humpback and right whale bycatch by almost three-quarters
- Neuroscience
A voyage into Parkinson’s disease, led by patient and journalist
Jon Palfreman’s Brain Storms explores Parkinson’s disease in the past, present and future.
- Animals
Boa suffocation is merely myth
Boa constrictors don’t suffocate prey; they block blood flow, says a new study that shatters a common myth about the snakes.
- Animals
Power of pupils is in their shape
Horizontally or vertically stretched pupils may provide predators and prey with visual advantages.
- Neuroscience
Brain scans hint at reasons for stress-eating
Moderate stress changes brain behavior in ways that may lead to poor food choices.
- Animals
Gibbons have been disappearing from China for centuries
Gibbons are now found in only a small area of southwestern China. But they once thrived across much of the country, records show.
- Neuroscience
Claim of memory transfer made 50 years ago
Scientist’s claims of transferred memories were more fiction than fact.
- Genetics
Ancestral humans had more DNA
A new genetic diversity map marks where humans have gained and lost DNA.
- Animals
First known venomous frogs stab with toxin-dripping lip spikes
Two Brazilian frogs jab foes with venoms more deadly than pit vipers'.
- Life
Chemical magic transforms skin cells into nerve cells
Just a few chemicals can transform skin cells from Alzheimer’s patients and healthy people into nerve cells.
- Life
Source of liver’s ability to regenerate found
Scientists have identified stem cells behind the liver’s legendary ability to replenish its tissue.
- Animals
Parasitic wasp larva gets more than a meal from its spider host
Parasitic wasps coerce spiders to construct strong supports for cocoons.
