Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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- Humans
Whaling back to the future
International commission meets after soul-searching on years of dispute.
- Life
When cells go quiet
Connections between nerve cells may be lost when communication between the cells lapses.
- Plants
Forest invades tundra
The Arctic tundra is under assault from trees, with serious implications for global climate change.
- Chemistry
Catching your breath
Scientists are investigating how to use the human breath to diagnose diseases and environmental ills.
- Animals
Peril of play
A new study shows that playful 2-year-old chimpanzees may be particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases — some caught from humans.
- Health & Medicine
Stomaching diabetes
A new way to treat diabetes could recruit cells in the gut to make insulin when the pancreas can’t.
- Agriculture
A vanilla Vanilla
The orchid that gives us vanilla beans has startlingly low genetic diversity, suggesting crops might be susceptible to pathogens, researchers report.
- Health & Medicine
Where funny faces come from
Making a face might have helped human ancestors survive.
- Animals
Squeaky chimp sex, or not
Female chimps tend toward silent sex when the other girls could overhear.
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- Archaeology
Resurrection of a biblical tree
Date palm pit found at Masada sprouts at age 2,000, becoming the oldest known seed to germinate.
