Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Paleontology
Sail-backed dinos had semiaquatic lifestyle
Isotopic analyses of fossils suggest the carnivores had crocodile-like habits.
- Life
Sperm’s pore propulsion
Scientists identify a key proton channel that helps explain the dash to fertilization.
- Health & Medicine
Protein clumps like a prion, but proves crucial for long-term memory
Study in slugs hints that some molecular 'misbehavior' in neurons may help solidify learning.
- Earth
Oldest feathered dino shows its colors
Analysis of a fossil suggests plumage first evolved for display, not flight.
- Earth
Florida’s big chill may have hammered corals near shore
January cold snap caused rare wintertime coral bleaching and die-offs for Florida’s coral reefs.
- Computing
Leaf veins loopy for a reason
A computer simulation finds that leaves' circular networks are efficient at getting around damaged spots and varying distribution load.
- Life
Skin cells transformed directly into neurons
Researchers making neurons bypass the need to revert cells to an embryonic state.
- Paleontology
Reverbs of bat echolocation studies
Ancient bat may well have used sound waves to sense the world, Sid Perkins reports in the latest Deleted Scenes blog.
- Life
Keeping black bears wild
Wildlife managers compare ways to keep bears away from food and people.
- Life
Carried aloft, tiny creatures avoid parasites, sex
Dry and blowing in the breeze, rotifers are safe from a deadly fungus — and perhaps from the vulnerabilities presumed to accompany asexual reproduction.
- Earth
Dinosaurs, in living color
Researchers find microscopic structures in some fossils that may have held pigments.
- Humans
Cigarettes might be infectious
Science & Society blog: The tobacco in cigarettes hosts a bacterial bonanza — literally hundreds of different germs, including those responsible for many human illnesses, a new study finds.
