Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Ecosystems
Beavers are engineering a new Alaskan tundra
Climate change has enabled the recent expansion of beavers into northwestern Alaska, a trend that could have major ecological consequences for the region in the coming decades.
- Genetics
Chinese scientists raise ethical questions with first gene-edited babies
Scientists say gene editing of human embryos isn’t yet safe, and creating babies was unethical.
- Animals
Mosquitoes may surf winds above Africa more than we realized
More than 40 meters up, balloon traps in Mali caught females of malaria-spreading mosquito species.
- Plants
Cactus spine shapes determine how they stab victims
The shapes of cactus spines influence how they poke passersby.
- Animals
How locust ecology inspired an opera
When an entomologist decides to write a libretto, you get an operatic elegy to locusts.
- Agriculture
50 years ago, screwworm flies inspired a new approach to insect control
The United States has wiped out screwworm flies repeatedly since 1966 using the sterile male eradication technique.
- Paleontology
This huge plant eater thrived in the age of dinosaurs — but wasn’t one of them
A newly named plant-eater from the Late Triassic was surprisingly hefty.
- Neuroscience
Brain implants let paralyzed people use tablets to send texts and stream music
People with paralysis could control commercially available tablets with their brain activity, researchers show.
- Life
Gut bacteria may guard against diabetes that comes with aging
A friendly microbe in the gut may be the key to staving off insulin resistance, a study in mice finds.
- Animals
Hemp fields offer a late-season pollen source for stressed bees
Colorado’s legal fields of low-THC cannabis can attract a lot of bees.
- Animals
Wombats are the only animals whose poop is a cube. Here’s how they do it.
The elasticity of wombats’ intestines helps the creatures shape their distinctive poops.
- Microbes
Mini ‘solar panels’ help yeast shine at churning out drug ingredients
Microbes equipped with light-harvesting semiconductor particles generate useful chemicals much more efficiently than ordinary microbes.
