Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
The ‘insect apocalypse’ is more complicated than it sounds
Freshwater arthropods trended upward, while terrestrial ones declined. But the study’s decades of data are spotty.
- Paleontology
The first frog fossil from Antarctica has been found
An ancient amphibian from Antarctica gives new insight into when the continent got so cold.
- Animals
Insects’ extreme farming methods offer us lessons to learn and oddities to avoid
Insects invented agriculture long before humans did. Can we learn anything from them?
- Life
How much space does nature need? 30 percent of the planet may not be enough
Nations are drafting a plan to protect 30 percent of Earth by 2030 to save biodiversity. The number reflects politics more than scientific consensus.
- Neuroscience
‘The Idea of the Brain’ explores the evolution of neuroscience
Despite advances, much about the human brain is still a mystery, a new book shows
- Life
Toxin-producing bacteria can make this newt deadly
Bacteria living on the skin of some rough-skinned newts produce tetrodotoxin, a paralytic chemical also found in pufferfish.
- Chemistry
Ancient recipes led scientists to a long-lost natural blue
Led by medieval texts, scientists hunted down a plant and extracted from its tiny fruits a blue watercolor whose origins had long been a mystery.
- Animals
Dancing peacock spiders turned an arachnophobe into an arachnologist
Just 22, Joseph Schubert has described 12 of 86 peacock spider species. One with a blue and yellow abdomen is named after Van Gogh’s Starry Night.
- Animals
Cold War nuclear test residue offers a clue to whale sharks’ ages
One unexpected legacy of the Cold War: Chemical traces of atomic bomb tests are helping scientists figure out whale shark ages.
- Animals
Seabirds may find food at sea by flying in a massive, kilometers-wide arc
Radar shows that seabird groups can fly together in giant “rake” formations. If they are cooperating to find food, it’s on a scale not yet seen in the birds.
- Paleontology
Two primate lineages crossed the Atlantic millions of years ago
Peruvian primate fossils point to a second ocean crossing by a now-extinct group roughly 35 million to 32 million years ago.
- Animals
Hitchhiking oxpeckers warn endangered rhinos when people are nearby
Red-billed oxpeckers do more than just eat parasites from rhinos’ backs. The birds can alert the hunted mammals to potential danger, a study finds.
