Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Microbes
Horsetail spores don’t need legs to jump
Forget legs. A plant uses curly, humidity-controlled ribbons to make epic leaps.
- Animals
Avoiding feces may be ‘luxury’ wild mice can’t afford
For a mouse in the woods, finding any food at all may trump poopy locations.
- Life
Many genes in dolphins and bats evolved in the same way to allow echolocation
Widespread changes scattered across the genomes of distantly related species cooperated to craft the trait.
- Animals
Seeking the loneliest whale
An enigmatic whale roams the North Pacific, and next year Bruce Mate will lead a monthlong expedition to find it.
- Animals
Collision Course
The tales of two ornithologists trying to prevent birds colliding with windows highlight the obstacles facing applied biology.
- Animals
Rats induced into hibernation-like state
Injection of compound causes animals to slow heartbeat, lower body temperature.
- Neuroscience
Video game sharpens up elderly brains
Adults over 60 who played for several hours a month beat untrained 20-year-olds in racing game.
- Animals
New fungus species found killing salamanders
First there was amphibian killer fungus Bd. Now there's Bs.
- Animals
Traveling with elders helps whooping cranes fly straight
Rare data show birds get more efficient the more they migrate along route between Wisconsin and Florida.
- Life
Tiny human almost-brains made in lab
Stem cells arrange themselves into a version of the most complex human organ.
- Life
Flu antibodies can make disease worse
Pigs vaccinated against one influenza virus got lung damage if infected with another strain.
- Life
A fight between gut parasites means a win for people
Worms and Giardia can antagonize each other in the human intestinal tract, study of people in the Amazon suggests.
