Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
A new twist on a twist
Nature abounds with perfect helices. They show up in animal horns and seashells, in DNA and the young tendrils of plants. But helix formation can get complicated: In some cases, the direction of rotation can reverse as a helix grows.
- Animals
Why tree-hugger koalas are cool
Drooping against bark during a heat wave could save koalas from overheating.
- Neuroscience
Stress and the susceptible brain
Some of us bounce back from stress, while others never really recover. A new study shows that different brain activity patterns could make the difference.
- Genetics
Blind mole-rats are loaded with anticancer genes
Genes of the long-lived blind mole-rat help explain how the animal evades cancer and why it lost vision.
- Chemistry
Bacteria take plants to biofuel in one step
Engineered bacterium singlehandedly dismantles tough switchgrass molecules, making sugars that it ferments to make ethanol.
- Animals
Beware the pregnant scorpion
Female striped bark scorpions are pregnant most of the time. That makes them fat, slow and really mean.
- Microbes
Irish potato famine microbe traced to Mexico
The pathogen that triggered the Irish potato famine in the 1840s originated in central Mexico, not the Andes, as some studies had suggested.
- Oceans
Dusk heralds a feeding frenzy in the waters off Oahu
Even dolphins benefit when layers of organisms in the water column overlap for a short period.
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- Genetics
How a genetic quirk makes hair naturally blond
Natural blonds don’t need hair dye. They have a variation on a genetic enhancer that dampens pigment production in their hair follicles, scientists say.
- Health & Medicine
Brain’s support cells play role in hunger
Once considered just helpers for neurons, astrocytes sense the hormone leptin and can change mice’s appetites.
- Animals
Pets’ rights explored in ‘Citizen Canine’
Science journalist David Grimm describes pet's progression towards full citizenship.
