Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
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- Life
Cilia control eating signal
Little hairlike appendages in brain cells control weight by sequestering an appetite hormone.
- Life
Building the body electric
Eyes can be grown in a frog’s gut by changing cells’ electrical properties, scientists find, opening up new possibilities for generating and regenerating complex organs.
- Life
Eggs have own biological clock
Reproductive cells age independently from the rest of the body, research in worms reveals.
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- Humans
DNA highlights Native American die-off
A genetic analysis points to widespread New World deaths after Europeans arrived.
- Life
Vying for the title of World’s Fastest Cell
Scientists film 58 kinds of mobile cells to study movement — and to have a little fun.
