Animals
A whopping 14 million species of insects — or more — may roam Earth
New calculations suggest that the insect species inhabiting our planet may be double or triple previous estimates.
Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
More Stories in Life
- Neuroscience
Brains break and repair DNA to grow
Newborn mice neurons can snap both DNA strands to migrate, then repair the breaks within a day. The process may be a normal part of brain development.
- Microbes
New science on algae die-offs is too late for the Reflecting Pool
Iron and hydrogen peroxide trigger cell death via ferroptosis, which cascades killer molecules through the population, causing mass die-offs of algae.
- Paleontology
Ancient flowering plants may have used dinosaurs to spread their seeds
Scientists thought angiosperms didn’t use animals to spread seeds until after the Age of Dinosaurs. Fossilized fruits from these plants challenge this idea.
- Paleontology
The world’s largest scorpion lived 415 million years ago
A prehistoric scorpion was the largest ever to exist, and it may have preyed on land and freshwater species.
- Neuroscience
The ‘little brain’ may give the aging mind a big boost
Most known for its role in movement, the cerebellum could compensate for flagging mental functions elsewhere in the brain.
- Paleontology
A new dino fossil may solve an ancient murder mystery
A newly-described dinosaur, Jian changmaensis, may have glided through northwestern China about 120 million years ago, wreaking havoc on birds.
- Health & Medicine
The New World screwworm has returned to the U.S. Now what?
At least a dozen animals have been found with the flesh-eating maggots. It could take more than a year to eradicate the parasite again, experts warn.
- Animals
Sea cucumbers harbor ‘zombie’ tissues that won’t die
Detached tissues from the sea cucumber's tube feet and feeding tentacles survived for more than three years, a find that could shape the study of aging.
- Paleontology
A textbook assumption about early land vertebrates may be wrong
Three species that lived about 308 million years ago challenge the idea that the first land vertebrates underwent amphibian-like metamorphosis.
