Life
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Rock-hard evidence
Newly discovered dinosaur tracks, the first ever reported from the Arabia Peninsula, indicate that a part of the now-arid region was teeming with dinosaurs about 150 million years ago.
By Sid Perkins - Health & Medicine
Vacillating stem cells
Unsuspected, ever-changing variation among stem cells in bone marrow helps determine the development path the cells will follow during differentiation.
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- Life
These colors don’t run
A chameleon employs different color-changing defenses depending on its predator.
By Susan Milius - Life
Reviving extinct DNA
For the first time, scientists have resurrected a piece of DNA from an extinct animal — the Tasmanian tiger. The researchers engineered mice with a piece of the long-gone marsupial's DNA that turns on a collagen gene in cartilage-producing cells.
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- Physics
Catching the cell in action
A light microscope with high resolution may enable scientists to view the 3-D structures within living cells.
By Tia Ghose - Life
Sepsis buster
The Ashwell receptor, a sugar-binding protein on liver cells, helps fight sepsis by clearing blood-clotting factors. The discovery clears up years of mystery surrounding the receptor’s function.
- Earth
Froggie Needs a Name – and Help
To help raise awareness about the plight of frogs and toads, which are disappearing globally, Amphibian Ark is selling formal naming rights to an unusual frog.
By Janet Raloff - Life
Protective protein
Discovering how bacteria defend themselves from foreign DNA might improve techniques for using microbes as little factories to make human proteins.
- Animals
Wild innovation
Researchers have published a rare description of a wild chimpanzee devising and modifying a novel form of tool use.
By Bruce Bower - Animals
Polar bears listed
Polar bear declared "threatened," but Secretary limits decision's impact.
By Susan Milius