Life

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

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  1. Ecosystems

    Aging European forests full to the brim with carbon

    Trees' capacity to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is dwindling.

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  2. Plants

    Dastardly daisies

    This flower isn’t just any old sex cheat. It can be sexually deceptive three ways and in 3-D.

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  3. Life

    Years or decades later, flu exposure still prompts immunity

    New forms of influenza viruses can spur production of antibodies to past pandemics in people who lived through them.

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  4. Life

    To make biofuel, cut the lignin

    Researchers disable key protein making plant sugars easier to access.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Gut-brain communication failure may spur overeating

    Restoring a depleted molecule in obese mice repaired their abnormal response to food.

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  6. Life

    Lab-grown heart has rhythm

    Researchers transform stem cells into contracting cardiac cells.

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  7. Animals

    New carnivore species found

    Tiny olingo species dubbed 'olinguito'.

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  8. Animals

    Antarctic waters may shelter wrecks from shipworms

    Ocean currents and polar front form 'moat' that keeps destructive mollusks at bay.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Mediterranean diet may offset genetic risk for stroke

    Compared to a low-fat diet, eating fish and olive oil kept blood sugar levels lower in people with a common diabetes risk factor.

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  10. Humans

    DNA reveals details of the peopling of the Americas

    Migrants came in three distinct waves that interbred once in the New World.

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  11. Life

    Envisioning a fly brain

    A new map of the fruit fly brain shows how the insect detects motion.

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  12. Neuroscience

    The Autistic Brain

    Thinking Across the Spectrum by Temple Grandin and Richard Panek.

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