Life

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Life

    Pulsing blob makes memories sans brain

    Slime molds create a GPS navigation system based on their own gooey trails.

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  2. Neuroscience

    To understand meetings of minds, scientists should study brains in the wild

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  3. Life

    2012 medicine Nobel honors research on reprogramming adult cells

    John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka share this year's prize.

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  4. Microbes

    Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

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  5. Life

    Scent Into Action

    Rodent responses to a whiff of predator may offer clues to instinct in the brain.

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  6. Humans

    Human-Neandertal mating gets a new date

    Late Stone Age interbreeding between Neandertals and people may have left a mark on Europeans’ DNA.

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  7. Life

    Duck-billed dino could slice and dice

    Ancient animal’s teeth were made of six different tissue types.

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  8. Life

    Mouse stem cells yield viable eggs

    Japanese scientists’ technical feat might provide new insights about protecting and extending human fertility.

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  9. Life

    Black mamba bite packs potent painkiller

    Scientists find that a component of snake venom blocks pain-sensing nerve signals.

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  10. Animals

    Right eye required for finding Mrs. Right

    Finches flirt unwisely if they can only use their left eyes.

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  11. Chemistry

    Chemical bond shields extreme microbes from poison

    Molecular structure explains how ‘arsenic life’ bacteria instead survive by fishing out phosphate from their surroundings.

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  12. Life

    Ants’ hive mind

    The insects make better decisions collectively than when on their own.

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