Life

  1. Climate

    Look to penguins to track Antarctic changes

    Scientists say carbon and nitrogen isotopes found in penguin tissues can indicate shifts in the Antarctic environment.

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  2. Genetics

    Study debunks fishy tale of how rabbits were first tamed

    A popular tale about rabbit domestication turns out to be fiction.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Cutting off a brain enzyme reversed Alzheimer’s plaques in mice

    Inhibiting an enzyme involved in the production of Alzheimer’s protein globs also made old globs, or plaques, disappear in mouse brains.

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  4. Life

    Shipping noise can disturb porpoises and disrupt their mealtime

    Noise from ships may disturb harbor porpoises enough to keep them from getting the food they need.

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  5. Genetics

    Genes could record forensic clues to time of death

    Scientists have found predictable patterns in the way our genetic machinery winds down after death.

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  6. Animals

    Even after bedbugs are eradicated, their waste lingers

    Bedbug waste contains high levels of the allergy-triggering chemical histamine, which stays behind even after the insects are eradicated.

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  7. Plants

    Ancient ozone holes may have sterilized forests 252 million years ago

    Swaths of barren forest may have led to Earth’s greatest mass extinction.

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  8. Animals

    Trove of hummingbird flight data reveals secrets of nimble flying

    Tweaks in muscle and wing form give different hummingbird species varying levels of agility.

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  9. Neuroscience

    The wiring for walking developed long before fish left the sea

    These strange walking fish might teach us about the evolutionary origins of our own ability to walk.

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  10. Neuroscience

    Watch nerve cells being born in the brains of living mice

    For the first time, scientists have seen nerve cells being born in the brains of adult mice.

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  11. Ecosystems

    Humans are overloading the world’s freshwater bodies with phosphorus

    Human activities are driving phosphorus levels in the world’s lakes and other freshwater bodies to a critical point.

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  12. Animals

    It’s a bad idea for a toad to swallow a bombardier beetle

    Toads are tough. But there are some insects even they shouldn’t swallow.

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