Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Materials Science
What causes the rainbow shimmer of ammolite gems?
Ammolite gems’ fabulous colors arise from delicate assemblies of crystal plates.
- Animals
Woodpecker hammering is a full-body affair
The birds grunt like tennis pros when generating their rat-a-tat, a performance strategy that may help stabilize core muscles.
- Animals
Mosquitoes infiltrated Iceland. Will they survive the winter?
Mosquitoes have reached Iceland, a place once thought too harsh for them to survive. Climate change may play a role in this shift.
- Chemistry
A new AI technique may aid violent crime forensics
An AI tool trained on chemical signatures from corpse-eating insects may help determine time and place of death for victims of violent crimes.
- Paleontology
Nanotyrannus was not a teenaged T. rex
A new Nanotyrannus fossil suggests the diminutive dino lived alongside T. rex in the late Cretaceous Period.
- Plants
This flower smells like injured ants — and flies can’t resist it
A type of Japanese dogsbane releases a scent identical to wounded ants’ distress signal, drawing in scavenging flies that unwittingly pollinate it.
- Animals
Deep Antarctic waters hold geometric communities of fish nests
Scientists found thousands of patterned fish nests in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, boosting calls for marine protected areas.
- Artificial Intelligence
The AI model OpenFold3 takes a crucial step in making protein predictions
The open-source AI model improves transparency in predicting how proteins interact with other molecules, which could speed up drug discovery.
- Animals
Polar bears provide millions of kilograms of food for other Arctic species
A new study shows how much food polar bears leave behind — and how their decline threatens scavengers across the Arctic.
- Anthropology
DNA reveals Neandertals traveled thousands of kilometers into Asia
DNA and stone tool comparisons suggest Eastern European Neandertals trekked 3,000 kilometers to Siberia, where they left a genetic and cultural mark.
- Animals
Subway mosquitoes evolved millennia ago in ancient Mediterranean cities
A variety of subway-dwelling mosquito seems like a modern artifact. But genomic analysis reveals the insect got its evolutionary start millennia ago.
- Paleontology
Dinosaurs were thriving before the asteroid hit, new analysis suggests
New dating of New Mexico rocks suggest diverse dinosaurs thrived there just before the impact, countering the idea dinos were already on their way out.
