Life

Genetics

Readers question the biology of alcoholism and more

Alcoholism-linked genes, making better corneas and more in reader feedback.

Neuroscience

Mice smell, share each other’s pain

Pain can jump from one mouse to another, presumably through chemicals detected by the nose.

Archaeology

Wild monkeys throw curve at stone-tool making’s origins

Monkeys that make sharp-edged stones raise questions about evolution of stone tool production.

Genetics

Big biological datasets map life’s networks

Expanding from genomics to multi-omics means stretching data capacity, but it may lead to a future of early diagnosis, personalized medicine and hardy crops.

Genetics

‘Three-parent babies’ explained

Several in vitro techniques can produce babies with three biological parents.

Animals

Melatonin makes midshipman fish sing

Melatonin lets people sleep but starts male midshipman fish melodiously humming their hearts out.

Oceans

Reef rehab could help threatened corals make a comeback

Reefs are under threat from rising ocean temperatures. Directed spawning, microfragmenting and selective breeding may help.

Animals

Berries may give yellow woodpeckers a red dye job

A diet of invasive honeysuckle berries may be behind stray red feathers in woodpeckers called yellow-shafted flickers.

Life

In a first, mouse eggs grown from skin cells

Stem cells grown in ovary-mimicking conditions in a lab dish can make healthy mouse offspring, but technique still needs work.

Neuroscience

Out-of-sync body clock causes more woes than sleepiness

The ailment, called circadian-time sickness, can be described with Bayesian math, scientists propose.

Ecosystems

‘Citizen Scientist’ exalts ordinary heroes in conservation science

Journalist Mary Ellen Hannibal’s “Citizen Scientist” tells tales of ordinary people contributing to science.

Animals

Be careful what you say around jumping spiders

Sensitive leg hairs may let jumping spiders hear sounds through the air at much greater distances than researchers imagined.