Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Termites, not fairies, cause plant circles in African deserts
Underground insect engineers create water traps in the soil, allowing rings of green grasses in the sand.
- Life
Blind cave-dwelling fish also hard of hearing
Two species that live in the dark have worse hearing than do their surface-living cousins.
- Life
Gut microbes may be behind weight loss after gastric bypass
Mice slim down after receiving bacteria transplanted from rodents that had the surgery.
- Life
Impending death alters crickets’ standards for mates
With a short time to live, parasite-infested females lose their preference for fast-chirping males.
- Life
Longhorn cattle ancestors came from Pakistan
New World breeds trace back to both major bovine lineages, genetic analysis shows.
- Life
How mammals grow ears: With a flaw
A newly discovered rupture-and-repair process that occurs in embryos could explain a lot about infections and hearing defects.
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- Life
Disease threatens garden impatiens
Surprising scientists, once-mild downy mildew has struck the popular blooms in 33 states.
- Life
Giant squid population is one big happy species
Elusive deep ocean dwellers have low genetic diversity despite living around the globe.
- Life
Microbes flourish at deepest ocean site
At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, eleven kilometers down, bacteria prosper despite crushing pressure and isolation.
- Life
Shorter-winged swallows evolve around highways
In survey along Nebraska roads, number of birds killed by cars has plummeted over 30 years.
- Life
Bedbugs raise genetic defense against pesticides
Bedbugs turn on several genes, in both their shells and their nerve cells, to stave off effects of insecticides.
