Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Ecosystems
Eight-legged bags of poison
Birds eating arachnids get high dose of toxic metal as mercury climbs up the food chain.
- Ecosystems
Beetle attack overturns forest carbon regime
Ravaged Canadian region switches from carbon sink to net carbon source.
- Agriculture
Study decodes papaya genome
Scientists have added another plant to the genome-sequencing roster: the tropical fruit tree papaya.
- Life
Elephant kin liked the water
Moeritherium, ancient relatives of modern elephants, may have spent much of their time in lakes, rivers or swamps.
- Paleontology
China was an ancient-ape paradise
Fossil dig uncovers the oldest known remains of ancestral gibbons
- Life
Twin Fates
Animal and human studies suggest that a girl with a twin brother may never completely escape the influence of her opposite-sex womb-mate.
- Life
Pockets of Poor Health
The trend towards longer life expectancy plateaued or reversed in some parts of the U.S., a new study finds.
- Life
Rest in peace nanobacteria, you were not alive after all
New studies bid a fond farewell to nanobacteria -- the extremely tiny “microorganisms” that have sparked controversy and may cause disease.
- Animals
First Frog without Lungs
An aquatic frog in fast-flowing water in Borneo turns out to be the first frog species with no lungs.
- Animals
Antibiotic Alligator: Promising proteins lurk in reptile blood
Scientists are zeroing in on alligator blood proteins that show promise for fighting disease-causing microbes.
- Animals
Robin stole credit for Batman’s deeds
Bats turn out to be overlooked but significant eaters of insects, pests and other arthropods on shade-grown coffee farms and in tropical forests.
- Animals
Comb jellies take root in a new tree of animal life
A team of biologists places comb jellies, not sponges, at the base of a new tree of animal life.
