Life

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

More Stories in Life

  1. Animals

    A secret to making a queen bee may lie in the wax around it

    Queen-cell wax helps shape honeybee queen development, challenging the idea that royal jelly alone makes a queen, a new study suggests.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Curbing Congo’s Ebola outbreak is hampered by unknowns about the virus

    Answers to key questions could help public health officials develop Ebola treatments, predict the outbreak’s trajectory and prevent a future one.

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  3. Archaeology

    Ötzi the Iceman’s remains yielded ‘viable’ yeasts in the lab

    The cold-loving yeasts from Ötzi’s remains suggest the Iceman’s microbiome may not be completely frozen in time.

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  4. Neuroscience

    A tiny part of your brain may still listen under anesthesia

    Tones, oddball sounds and words can spark brain cell responses, hinting at nuanced processing without consciousness.

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  5. Animals

    Homing pigeons may use a surprising navigation mechanism

    How animals navigate by Earth's magnetic field is hotly debated. New research in pigeons points to iron-laden liver immune cells as the compass.

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  6. Life

    Can DEET attract mosquitoes? A lab study offers clues

    Lab experiments suggest mosquitoes can smell DEET and learn to associate it with food, but it’s unclear whether that happens in the wild.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Why is hantavirus so deadly? It’s not what you may think

    Andes hantavirus causes deadly lung failure, but its method of attack differs from other respiratory illnesses. The details might inform future treatments.

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  8. Animals

    Even careful scuba divers can damage coral reefs

    Hours of diving videos and hundreds of survey responses reveal the common diver mistakes that can cause irreversible reef damage.

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  9. Animals

    Seabirds weren’t fooled by a scarecrow-like buoy with rotating eyes

    A tall buoy with a rotating pair of eyes was supposed to scare birds away from caught fish. Like scarecrows, it didn't work for long.

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