Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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- Life
Staggered lessons may work better
Training at irregular intervals improves learning in sea snails.
- Paleontology
Early animals dethroned
Cell division patterns in controversial Chinese fossils place them outside the animal kingdom.
- Ecosystems
Groundwater dropping globally
Nine-year record collected from orbit finds supply dropping mostly due to agriculture.
- Life
Pigeons rival primates in number task
Trained on one-two-three, the birds can apply the rule of numerical order to such lofty figures as five and nine.
- Life
Drugs activate dormant gene
A compound that blocks DNA unwinding can spur production of a critical brain protein in mice, leading to hope for a therapy for Angelman syndrome.
- Life
BPA sends false signals to female hearts
The ingredient of some plastics and food packaging can interfere with cardiac rhythm at surprisingly low concentrations.
- Life
The electric mole rat acid test
Naked mole rats don’t feel the burn of acid thanks to tweaks in a protein involved in sending pain messages to the brain.
- Humans
Uncommitted newbies can foil forceful few
Decisions more democratic when individuals with no preset preference join a group.
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- Life
Walking may have had wet start
Based on the way that primitive lungfish use their fins to move along tank bottoms, researchers argue for an underwater start to four-legged locomotion.
- Life
Mere fear shrinks bird families
Just hearing recordings of predators, in the absence of any real danger, caused sparrows to raise fewer babies.
