Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Baby’s calcium might play defining role in adult bone health
Calcium makes bones strong. But a new animal study suggests that to do this, ample calcium may need to be available from birth. Too little in the early weeks of life may reprogram certain stem cells – those in the marrow – in ways that permanently compromise bone structure. Perhaps even fostering osteoporosis.
- Animals
Chimps may be aware of others’ deaths
Reactions of chimps to dead companions and infants suggest a basic realization of what death entails.
- Life
Paradox of dining in deep, wet mud
A bonanza of food doesn’t necessarily result in biodiversity among deep sediment dwellers off California’s coast.
- Space
Life in the sticky lane
Tropical asphalt lake could be analog for extraterrestrial microbial habitat.
- Earth
Emerging Northwest fungal disease develops virulent Oregon strain
Uncommon but sometimes fatal infections of the lung or brain can show up months after someone inhales spores.
- Animals
Male spiders have safe(r) sex with siblings
In a cannibalistic species, brothers minimize risk when mating with their sisters.
- Life
BATTLE trial personalizes lung cancer treatment
A new study makes a first step toward personalized chemotherapy.
- Life
Pine pollen gets flight miles
A first-of-its-kind study logs the record to beat for germination after air travel.
- Health & Medicine
Embryo transfer technique could prevent maternally inherited diseases
A new technique transplants healthy nuclear DNA of cells carrying mutated mitochondria.
- Life
Mutation effects often depend on genetic milieu
Genetic background is at least as important as environment, fruit fly research shows.
- Health & Medicine
Mapping the fruit fly brain
A new digital atlas could reveal how 100,000 neurons work together.
- Health & Medicine
Gulf War Syndrome real, Institute of Medicine concludes
U.S. veterans who claim to suffer from Gulf War Syndrome just received powerful new ammunition against arguments that their symptoms are trivial, if not altogether fictional. On April 9, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences issued a report that concludes military service in the Persian Gulf War has not only been a cause of post-traumatic stress disorder in some veterans but also is "associated with multisymptom illness” – as in Gulf War Syndrome.
