Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Genetics
Mountain gorilla genome reveals inbreeding
Mountain gorillas are highly inbred, with good and bad consequences.
- Paleontology
Fossil reveals terror bird’s power
Bones of a new terror bird confirm the creatures used their beaks to hatchet their prey but also raise questions about what drove the birds extinct.
- Paleontology
Tyrannosaurs fought and ate each other
Evidence from a tyrannosaur skull and jaw fossils add to the argument that the ancient reptiles fought and weren’t above scavenging their own.
- Genetics
Contagious cancer found in clams
A soft-shell clam disease is just the third example of a contagious cancer.
- Animals
Tiny sea turtles are swimmers, not drifters
Young green and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles moved in different directions than instruments set adrift in the sea, which shows the animals were swimming.
- Genetics
Mummies tell tuberculosis tales from the crypt
Hungarian mummies contracted multiple strains of tuberculosis at the same time, researchers find.
- Animals
Dealing with droughts, museums going digital and more reader feedback
Readers share their experiences with dry weather in the U.S., discuss how humans mentally sort quantities and more.
- Life
It’s true: Butterfly spots can mimic scary eyes
Contrary to recent studies, the old notion that butterfly wing eyespots evoke predator eyes may not be so old-fashioned after all.
- Genetics
Anti-inflammation genes linked to longer lives
Inflammation-dampening genes fight oxidants and promote longer life spans.
- Health & Medicine
Mutation regions mapped on genes that cause breast and ovarian cancer
An analysis of mutated BRCA genes could someday be used for personalized medicine in the fight against breast and ovarian cancer.
- Paleontology
Brontosaurus deserves its name, after all
Brontosaurus belongs in a genus separate from Apatosaurus, a new study proposes.
- Neuroscience
Brains may be wired to count calories, make healthy choices
Fruit flies appear to make memories of the calories in the food they eat, an observation that may have implications for weight control in humans.
