Life

Earth

Antidepressants make for sad fish

Fish may suffer substantially from even brief encounters with antidepressants, which wastewater releases into river water.

Animals

Lizard push-ups grab attention

Nearby lizards more likely to get the message if its preceded by push-ups

Paleontology

Bacteria may play big role in forming fossils

Bacteria can build a biofilm that preserves a tissue's structure.

Life

Protein crucial in preventing Parkinson’s

By destroying bad mitochondria, Parkin protects cells

Life

Mammoth genome approaching completion

Genetic material extracted from the hair of woolly mammoths has revealed new information about the extinct creatures, including how closely related they are to modern elephants.

Health & Medicine

This is the teenager’s brain on peer pressure

Research shared during the fourth day of the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting remained diverse: What happens in the brain when teenagers feel peer pressure, a study in mice suggesting a new way to treat depression, the best way to relearn walking after a stroke, and the long lasting effects of disrupted sleep.

Animals

Forensics’ next tool: Hair-collecting caterpillars

First human DNA extraction from hair bits in moth larval case.

Humans

Moonsleeping bad for spacewalking

Day three of the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting offered news about Down syndrome and sleep cycles.

Health & Medicine

Neandertals, gut microbes and mail-order ancestry tests

Geneticists weigh in during the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics.

Health & Medicine

Diversity of human skin bacteria revealed

First large-scale inventory of microbes charts types, locales of bacteria.

Life

Supreme Court lifts restriction on Navy sonar testing

Justices overturn restrictions that require Navy to stop using sonar when marine mammals are within 2,200 yards of vessels.

Ecosystems

Costs of Choked-Up Waters

Scientists tally the economic toll of fertilizing pollutants on water quality.