Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Neuroscience
Smartphone users’ thumbs are reshaping their brains
Smartphones are forcing us to use our thumbs in new ways and reshaping the way our brains respond to touch.
- Life
Fossil fish eye has 300 million-year-old rods and cones
A fossil fish shows the earliest evidence of rods and cones, cells essential for color vision in vertebrates.
- Animals
The scent of a worry
The smell of fear makes other rats stressed. Now, scientists have isolated the Eau de Terror that lets rats communicate their concerns.
- Genetics
The year in genomes
From the tiny Antarctic midge to the towering loblolly pine, scientists this year cracked open a variety of genetic instruction manuals to learn about some of Earth’s most diverse inhabitants.
- Life
Bird flu follows avian flyways
A deadly bird flu virus spreads along wildfowl migration routes in Asia.
- Microbes
The year in microbiomes
This year, scientists pegged microbes as important players in several aspects of human health, including obesity and cancer.
- Animals
Starving mantis females lie to make a meal of a male
When in desperate straits, a female false garden mantid turns into a femme fatale, emitting false chemical cues that lures in a male to eat.
- Animals
It’s bat vs. bat in aerial jamming wars
In nighttime flying duels, Mexican free-tailed bats make short, wavering sirenlike sounds that jam each other’s sonar.
- Animals
Lucky break documents warbler tornado warning
Warblers fitted with data collecting devices for other reasons reveal early and extreme measures when dodging April’s tornado outbreak.
- Animals
Crows may be able to make analogies
Crows with little training pass a lab test for analogical reasoning that requires matching similar or different icons.
- Agriculture
Restoring crop genes to wild form may make plants more resilient
Restoring wild genes could make plants more resilient in tough environments.
- Life
Fast test reveals drug-resistant bacteria
A new test uses time-lapse photography to see within a few hours whether individual bacterial cells are vulnerable to antibiotics.
