Life
- Health & Medicine
A mouse’s metabolism may follow circadian rhythms set by gut bacteria
While animals’ circadian clocks control functions from sleep to hormone release, gut bacteria dictate when mice’s small intestines take up fat.
- Life
Losing genes may have helped whales’ ancestors adapt to life under the sea
Jettisoning genes tied to saliva and the lungs, among others, could have smoothed ancient cetaceans’ land-to-water transition 50 million years ago.
- Climate
How climate change is already altering oceans and ice, and what’s to come
A new IPCC report gives the lowdown on how climate change is already wreaking havoc on Earth’s oceans and frozen regions, and how much worse things could get.
- Health & Medicine
Disabling one protein might one day lead to a cure for the common cold
Scientists have identified a protein in humans that some viruses, including those that cause colds, need to spread.
- Life
Cats may have ‘attachment styles’ that mirror people’s
In a new study, 65 percent of felines formed secure attachments with their owners. Like people, other cats were ambivalent or avoidant.
- Plants
Why tumbleweeds may be more science fiction than Old West
A tumbleweed is just a maternal plant corpse giving her living seeds a chance at a good life somewhere new.
- Life
We’ve lost 3 billion birds since 1970 in North America
Scientists estimated the change in total number of individual birds since 1970. They found profound losses spread among rare and common birds alike.
- Humans
Ancient DNA reveals the first glimpse of what a Denisovan may have looked like
A controversial technique reconstructs a teenage Denisovan’s physical appearance from genetics.
- Life
Climate change may be throwing coral sex out of sync
Several widespread corals in the Red Sea are flubbing cues to spawn en masse.
- Agriculture
Birds fed a common pesticide lost weight rapidly and had migration delays
Scientists have previously implicated neonicotinoid pesticides in declining bee populations. Now a study suggests that songbirds are affected, too.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, polio was still circulating in the United States
The world has never been closer to eradicating polio, but the disease could come roaring back where vaccination is spotty.
- Science & Society
‘The Nature of Life and Death’ spotlights pollen’s role in solving crimes
In ‘The Nature of Life and Death,’ botanist Patricia Wiltshire recounts some of her most memorable cases.
