Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Gene linked to pain perception
A common genetic variant that appears to increase sensitivity could lead to the development of better medications.
- Earth
Green-ish pesticides bee-devil honey makers
Pesticides are agents designed to rid targeted portions of the human environment of undesirable critters – such as boll weevils, roaches or carpenter ants. They’re not supposed to harm beneficials. Like bees. Yet a new study from China finds that two widely used pyrethroid pesticides – chemicals that are rather “green” as bug killers go – can significantly impair the pollinators’ reproduction.
- Earth
Country ants make it big in the city
Odorous house ants act like invading aliens when they discover urban living.
- Life
Mature females key to beluga sturgeon survival
Hatchery fish are unlikely to restore caviar-producing fish populations, a new assessment finds.
- Earth
Fowl surprise! Methylmercury improves hatching rate
A pinch of methylmercury is just ducky for mallard reproduction, according to a new federal study. The findings are counterintuitive, since methylmercury is ordinarily a potent neurotoxic pollutant.
- Life
Researchers distinguish two different types of blood stem cells
Working in mice, scientists find that red and white blood cells arise from different progenitors.
- Life
Rise of female weaponry driven by poop fights
Motherly fights for excrement in one species of dung beetle have favored the evolution of a special female horn.
- Paleontology
Ancient DNA suggests polar bears evolved recently
A study of a rare Norwegian fossil narrows down when polar bears evolved and finds they are closely related to modern-day brown bears in Alaska.
- Life
Hydrothermal vents sometimes colonized from afar
Deep-sea currents can waft larvae hundreds of kilometers.
- Plants
Losing life’s variety
2010 is the deadline set for reversing declines in biodiversity, but little has been accomplished.
- Ecosystems
Sea of plastics
Oceanographers are finding more patches of floating polymers, some up to 20 meters deep.
- Life
Ultraviolet freckles start fish fights
Two damselfish species use short wavelengths to recognize rivals’ spots.
