Life
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Mimivirus up close
Scientists get a closer look at the structure of mimivirus, the largest virus in the world.
- Animals
Caterpillars’ chirp could be scary
Larvae of great peacock moths might signal that they’ll put up a fight.
By Susan Milius - Plants
Climatic effects of tree-killing hurricanes
A new analysis suggests storm damage returns millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year.
By Sid Perkins - Life
Function for green fluorescent protein
Scientists find that the glowing molecule also passes electrons, offering a new clue about the natural function of a protein that's become ubiquitous in molecular biology.
- Ecosystems
Living Physics
From green leaves to bird brains, biological systems may exploit quantum phenomena.
By Susan Gaidos - Animals
Swarm Savvy
How bees, ants and other animals avoid dumb collective decisions
By Susan Milius - Plants
Landscaper’s darling hybridizes into an environmental nuisance
Variation underlies the Callery pear tree’s transformation .
By Susan Milius -
- Plants
Oops, missed that tree
Until now, an acacia common in its African homeland had no scientific name
By Susan Milius - Animals
Ants do real estate the simple way
Tracking ants with anti-shoplifter RFID tags has inspired a new, simplified view of how a colony finds a home
By Susan Milius - Earth
A little air pollution boosts vegetation’s carbon uptake
Aerosols bumped up world’s plant productivity by 25 percent in the 1960s and 1970s, new research suggests.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Fossil of a walking seal found
A fossil skeleton discovered in the Canadian Arctic could represent a missing link in pinniped evolution.