Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
After a breakup, coral embryos live on as clones
Even modest waves can break apart embryonic corals, but the bits that survive can grow into separate clones.
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- Life
Pollutants long gone, but disease carries on
Even without new exposures, various chemicals can impact DNA and cause illness across at least three subsequent generations, rat study finds.
- Anthropology
Frozen mummy’s genetic blueprints unveiled
DNA study reveals the 5,300-year-old Iceman had brown eyes, Lyme disease and links to modern-day Corsicans and Sardinians.
- Life
Sardine fishery may be in peril
Cool ocean cycle, population slide evoke collapse of Pacific resource in the late 1940s.
- Life
Brain cells know which way you’ll bet
Activity of nerve cells in a key brain structure reveals how people will bet in a card game.
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- Life
Eggs may be made throughout adulthood
The discovery of stem cells in human ovaries suggests that women are not born with a lifetime’s supply of gametes.
- Life
Bird flu less deadly, but more widespread, than official numbers suggest
The H5N1 virus appears to have infected far more than the 573 officially confirmed victims.
- Life
Old-fashioned fish regrow fins
Fish on an ancient line can regenerate lost limbs with newt-like flair, suggesting that ability was shared among ancient ancestors.
- Life
The bloom isn’t off this ancient plant
Using fruit found in Siberia’s permafrost, scientists grow oldest flowering specimen ever produced from preserved tissue.
- Genetics
Crosses make lab mice even more useful
Scientists have bred new strains of lab animals with the goal of making it easier to tease out genetic components of complex diseases.
