Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
It’s hard being a sea otter mom
The energy requirements of lactation may explain why some female sea otters abandon their young.
- Life
Dinos straddled line between cold- and warm-blooded
Tyrannosaurus rex and other dinosaurs straddled line between cold- and warm-blood, a new analysis finds.
- Tech
Exoskeleton helps paraplegic kick off World Cup
A paralyzed person wearing a brain-controlled robotic exoskeleton has made the first kick at the 2014 soccer World Cup.
- Life
California mite becomes fastest land animal
Despite being the size of a sesame seed, the Paratarsotomus macropalpis mite can outpace Usain Bolt and even a cheetah in terms of body lengths per second.
- Genetics
Chimp and human lineages may have split twice as long ago as thought
New estimates of chimpanzee mutation rates suggest humans and chimps last shared a common ancestor 13 million years ago.
- Neuroscience
Crayfish get anxious, too
After receiving a shock, crayfish act anxious, avoiding brightly lit areas.
- Animals
Look beyond pest species to find beauty in cockroaches
A few pest species give the group a bad name, but exotic roaches include an amazing diversity of colors and lifestyles.
- Animals
See your lawn through a bird’s eyes with YardMap
A new web tool lets you map your outdoor spaces and wildlife habitat, helping scientists understand how birds use urban and suburban spaces.
- Paleontology
Ancient fish may have set stage for jaws
A fish called Metaspriggina walcotti, which lived roughly 500 million years ago, had body parts that may have later evolved into jaws.
- Animals
Ant sperm swim as a team
The desert ant has sperm that swim in bundles for extra speed, perhaps increasing their likelihood of fertilizing an egg.
- Health & Medicine
Bacteria linked to stress-induced heart attacks
Bacteria may play an underlying role in heart attacks brought on by stress.
- Animals
Winter road salting reshapes next summer’s butterflies
Winter road salt treatments boost sodium in roadside plants and alter development for monarch butterflies.
