Life
Sign up for our newsletter
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Just ain’t natural
Monster data crunch strengthens case that climate is disrupted.
By Susan Milius - Life
Identifying viable embryos
New genetic tests to distinguish viable from nonviable embryos may help eliminate risky multiple births from fertility procedures.
- Tech
The flap on dragonfly flight
New experiments have revealed an aerodynamic trick that dragonflies use to fly efficiently — a trick that engineers could exploit to improve the energy efficiency of small aerial vehicles with a similar design.
By Sid Perkins - Life
Good night, Sloth
First EEG of free-roaming animals finds less sleeping in the real world.
By Susan Milius - Plants
One gene, many shapes
A single genetic change may lead to the notable diversity of leaves seen in Galapagos Island tomato plants.
By Tia Ghose - Health & Medicine
BOOK REVIEW | Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life
Review by Elizabeth Quill.
- Life
BOOK LIST | Manipulative Monkeys: The Capuchins of Lomas Barbudal
Primatologists follow the social lives of these big-brained Costa Rican monkeys. Harvard Univ. Press, 2008 358 p. $45 MANIPULATIVE MONKEYS
By Science News - Plants
BOOK LIST | Winter Trees
In this picture book, a child uses sight and touch to identify seven common trees, even after they’ve lost their leaves. Charlesbridge Publishing, 2008, 30 p. $15.95 WINTER TREES
By Science News - Life
It’s the network, stupid
The complexity of humans may lie not in genes but in the web of interactions among the proteins they make.
-
- Life
Epic Genetics
The way genes are packaged by "epigenetic" changes may play a major role in the risk of addiction, depression and other mental disorders.
- Life
Duckbill decoded
With a mix of reptilian, bird and mammalian features, the duck-billed platypus genome looks as strange as the animal.
By Amy Maxmen