Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Humans
Primates get a neural facial
New brain-imaging studies indicate that similar brain areas coordinate face recognition in people, chimpanzees and macaque monkeys, suggesting that a face-sensitive brain system evolved early in primate evolution.
- Health & Medicine
Bacteria help themselves in damaged lungs
An antibiotic produced by a bacterium acts as a molecular snorkel to help with breathing. The bacterium infects and kills many people with cystic fibrosis, and plugging the snorkel could lead to treatments.
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- Life
Aging gets with the program
A study on yeast organisms reveals checkpoints in the aging process: the buildup of certain lipids and fatty acids, and the health of the cell's powerhouses. Drugs could target these checkpoints.
- Life
Extreme preservation gives fly’s eye view
The cell-by-cell detail of a 45 million-year–old retina is preserved in amber
- Life
Hawaii’s honeyeater birds tricked taxonomists
DNA from old museum specimens reveals evolutionary look-alikes.
- Life
Study raises worries for zoo-born elephants
Study of captive-born females finds big survival gap between zoo natives and elephants in native ranges.
- Health & Medicine
Gene could drive species separation
Newly identified fruit fly gene provides evidence for “cheating genes” that may cause species schisms
- Animals
Dolphins wield tools of the sea
A long-term study of dolphins living off Australia’s coast finds that a small number of them, mostly females, frequently use sea sponges to forage for fish on the ocean floor.
- Chemistry
Engineered bacteria create high-energy biofuel
Scientists alter E. coli microbes to make a high-energy alcohol not produced naturally
- Health & Medicine
Malaria vaccine closer to reality
The success of two trials sets the stage for a final, large-scale trial that could mean approval of what would be the first vaccine against Malaria.
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