Life
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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LifeFunction 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.
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EcosystemsLiving Physics
From green leaves to bird brains, biological systems may exploit quantum phenomena.
By Susan Gaidos -
AnimalsSwarm Savvy
How bees, ants and other animals avoid dumb collective decisions
By Susan Milius -
PlantsLandscaper’s darling hybridizes into an environmental nuisance
Variation underlies the Callery pear tree’s transformation .
By Susan Milius -
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PlantsOops, missed that tree
Until now, an acacia common in its African homeland had no scientific name
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsAnts 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 -
EarthA 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 -
EarthFossil of a walking seal found
A fossil skeleton discovered in the Canadian Arctic could represent a missing link in pinniped evolution.
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LifeFossil evidence for a Goldilocks tyrannosaur
A newly described species of tyrannosaur helps fill in details about the fearsome meat-eating dinosaurs.
By Sid Perkins -
LifeNew neurons don’t heal
New neurons produced in the brain after a stroke don’t grow into all the cell types needed to heal the wound.
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EarthAn earlier appearance for the first land plants
Fossilized pollen could show that modern land plants evolved earlier than thought.