Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
To understand the origins of pain, ask a flatworm
A danger-sensing protein responds to hydrogen peroxide in planarians, results that hint at the evolutionary origins of people’s pain sensing.
- Animals
Surgeon aims to diagnose deformities of extinct saber-toothed cats
Using CT scans, one orthopedic surgeon is on a quest to diagnose deformities in long-dead saber-toothed cats.
- Climate
During El Niño, the tropics emit more carbon dioxide
El Niño increases carbon emissions from the tropics — mimicking future climate change.
- Neuroscience
There’s no rest for the brain’s mapmakers
Navigational grid cells stay on the job during sleep.
- Genetics
We’re more Neandertal than we thought
Neandertals contributed more to human traits than previously thought.
- Animals
New deep-sea sponge could play a starring role in monitoring ocean health
A new species of sponge that dwells on metal-rich rocks could help scientists track the environmental impact of deep-sea mining.
- Animals
Ancient whale turns up on wrong side of the world
A Southern Hemisphere whale species was briefly a northern resident.
- Tech
Superbugs may meet their match in these nanoparticles
Quantum dots and antibiotics hit bacteria with a one-two punch.
- Neuroscience
New book offers a peek into the mind of Oliver Sacks
The wide-ranging essays in Oliver Sacks’ ‘The River of Consciousness’ contemplate evolution, memory and more.
- Agriculture
Much of the world’s honey now contains bee-harming pesticides
A controversial group of chemicals called neonicotinoids has a global impact, tests of honey samples show.
- Genetics
Ancient humans avoided inbreeding by networking
Ancient DNA expands foragers’ social, mating networks.
- Plants
José Dinneny rethinks how plants hunt for water
Plant biologist José Dinneny probes the very beginnings of root development, which may have important implications for growing food in a changing climate.
