Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Narwhal has the strangest tooth in the sea
Sometimes called the unicorn of the sea, the male narwhal’s tusk is actually a tooth. Narwhals detect changes in water salinity using only these tusks, a new study finds.
- Animals
How to milk a naked mole-rat
For the sake of science, Olav Oftedal has milked bats, bears and a lot of other mammals. But a naked mole-rat was something new.
- Health & Medicine
First MERS case found in the U.S.
Patient in Indiana had traveled from Arabian Peninsula, where most of the 463 cases of Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome have occurred.
- Neuroscience
You smell, and mice can tell
A new study shows that the smell of a man causes stress in lab mice. The findings show scientists have yet another variable to control: the scientist.
- Neuroscience
Young rats that use their brain keep more cells alive
Learning a task helps just-born cells survive in a learning and memory center of the rat brain.
- Animals
Some birds adapt to Chernobyl’s radiation
Some birds seem to fare well in and near the Chernobyl exclusion zone, but overall the nuclear disaster has been bad news for the region’s bird populations.
- Paleontology
Loblolly sets record for biggest genome
At 20 billion base pairs, the loblolly pine is the largest genome sequenced to date.
- Animals
Bird mimicry lets hustlers keep cheating
Drongos are false alarm specialists that borrow other species’ warning sounds and freshen up their fraud.
- Microbes
Viruses buoy life at hydrothermal vents
Using hijacked genes, deep-sea viruses help sulfur-eating bacteria generate power in the plumes of hydrothermal vents.
- Neuroscience
Humans can sniff out gender
A new study adds to controversy of whether people have pheromones.
- Animals
Caiman tears make a salty snack
An ecologist observed a bee and a butterfly hovering around a caiman, engaging in lacryphagous behavior, slurping up the crocodilian’s tears.
- Psychology
Leonardo da Vinci may have invented 3-D image with ‘Mona Lisa’
A mysterious copy of the ‘Mona Lisa’ combines with the Louvre painting to make a stereoscopic image of the woman with the enigmatic smile.
