Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Marine creature cooks up chemical defense from food
The sea hare transforms a benign algal pigment into a noxious molecule to help ward off crabs and other predators, new studies show.
- Animals
Sex, crickets and videotape
Security cameras focused on insects in the wild are looking at whether lab science has gotten the singing, mating and fighting right.
- Humans
Tracing Jewish roots
An analysis of the entire genome of Jewish people shows Middle Eastern roots and traces ancestry across the globe.
- Animals
Diversified portfolio yields benefit for salmon stocks
Local diversity keeps sockeye from going bust every few years, a study finds.
- Life
Seaweed genome reveals tools for multicellular lifestyle
Genetic blueprints of a brown alga reveal adaptations to changing tides and may give clues for to evolution of more complex life.
- Ecosystems
Honeybee death mystery deepens
Government scientists link colony collapse disorder to mix of fungal and viral infections.
- Health & Medicine
Shark cartilage doesn’t appear to help lung cancer
Patients taking an extract show no improvement.
- Paleontology
Octopus origins
After examining more than 90 new specimens of Nectocaris pteryx, paleontologists put it near the root of the cephalopod evolutionary tree.
- Life
Bacterial chitchat proves distracting for wound healing
Microbial communication signals partially block skin cells from closing a cut.
- Humans
Chaos makes a scream seem real
Researchers analyze movie sound tracks to identify the acoustic roots of fear.
- Life
Parks not burdening poor neighbors, study says
New research examines controversy over conservation areas by studying poverty in Costa Rica and Thailand.
- Life
Artificial butterfly mixes high, low tech
Model shows importance of wing veins and bobbing flight to keeping swallowtails aloft.
