Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Cats and foxes are driving Australia’s mammals extinct
Since the arrival of Europeans in Australia, a startling number of mammal species have disappeared. A new study puts much of the blame on introduced cats and foxes.
- Astronomy
Finding joy and inspiration in the pursuit of knowledge
Editor in Chief Eva Emerson ruminates on the power of knowledge, and the ways scientists are refining how we think about the aging human brain, far away comets and even the speed of light.
- Earth
Mineral hunting, mob math and more reader feedback
Readers ask about Earth's most abundant mineral and discuss the notoriously unpredictable behavior of pedestrians.
- Psychology
Adults with autism are left to navigate a jarring world
Researchers are beginning to study ways to help adults with autism navigate independently, get jobs and find friendship.
- Health & Medicine
Bouncing back from giving blood can take months
Taking iron supplements after donating blood can dramatically reduce the time it takes to recover iron levels in the blood, a study finds.
- Neuroscience
A brain at rest offers clues to Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s
PET scans reveal that the breakdown of brain networks differs in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
- Ecosystems
Noise made by humans can be bad news for animals
Animals live in a world of sounds. Clever experiments are finally teasing out how human-made noise can cause dangerous distractions.
- Animals
‘The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins’ offers window into cetacean societies
Dolphins and whales pass cultural knowledge to one another, the authors of a new book argue.
- Animals
Toads prefer to bound, not hop
The multiple hops made by toads are really a bounding motion similar to movements made by small mammals.
- Plants
Fairly bad pitcher traps triumph in the end
Carnivorous pitcher plant traps rarely catch much, but their lackadaisical hunting turns out not to be so lame after all.
- Animals
Rainforest frogs flourish with artificial homes
A rainforest frog population grew by about 50 percent when scientists built pools for tadpoles that mimic puddles made by other animals.
- Ecosystems
Termite mound paradises help buffer dry land against climate change
Landscapes dotted by Africa’s great termite mounds look on the verge of turning into desert but are, in fact, more resilient.
