Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Plants
Mirror Image: Flowers with opposite styles have a fling
Scientists have discovered a gene that controls whether flowers lean to the left or the right.
- Animals
Bay leaves may make rat nests nicer
Wood rats may be fumigating their nests with bits of California bay leaves, sprigs that killed flea larvae in lab tests.
- Paleontology
All mixed up over birds and dinosaurs
A bit of fossil fakery snookered a team of paleontologists
- Ecosystems
Plight of the Iguanas: Hidden die-off followed Galápagos spill
Residues of oil spilled in the Galapágos Islands in January 2001 may have caused a 60 percent decline in one island's colony of marine iguanas.
- Ecosystems
Famine reveals incredible shrinking iguanas
Marine iguanas in the Galápagos Islands are the first vertebrates known to reduce their size during a food shortage and then regrow to their original body lengths.
- Animals
Male bats primp daily for odor display
For the first time, scientists have described the daily routine of male sac-winged bats gathering to freshen the odor pouches on their wings.
- Animals
Sniff . . . Pow! Wasps use chemicals to start ant brawls
Wasps sneak around in ant colonies thanks to chemicals that send the ants into a distracting frenzy of fighting among themselves.
- Animals
Walking sticks mimic two leafy looks and split their species
A species of walking stick may be evolving into two species by adapting to different environments.
- Animals
Mole-rats: Kissing but not quite cousins
Damaraland mole-rats live underground in rodent versions of bee hives, but a genetic analysis of these colonies finds that kinship isn't very beelike.
- Animals
Gator Feelings: Tough faces, more sensitive than ours
Alligator and crocodile faces carry pressure receptors so responsive that they can detect ripples on the water's surface from a single falling drop.
- Animals
No Tickling: Common caterpillars deploy defensive hair
The caterpillars of the European cabbage butterfly have a chemical defense system that scientists haven't documented before.
- Animals
Dogged Dieting: Low-cal canines enjoy longer life
The first completed diet-restriction study in a large animal shows that labrador retrievers fed 25 percent less food than those allowed to eat as much as they desired tend to live longer and suffer fewer age-related diseases.
