Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Archaeology
Ancient dental plaque tells tales of Neandertal diet and disease
Researchers have reconstructed the diet and disease history of ancient Neandertals.
- Animals
Readers dispute starfishes’ water-swirling abilities
Volcanic eruptions, fast-freezing water, starfish physics and more in reader feedback.
- Neuroscience
Brain training turns recall rookies into memory masters
Six weeks of training turned average people into memory masters, a skill reflected in their brains.
- Agriculture
Fleets of drones could pollinate future crops
Chemist Eijiro Miyako turned a lab failure into a way to rethink artificial pollination.
- Ecosystems
Invasive species, climate change threaten Great Lakes
In The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, a journalist chronicles the lakes’ downward spiral and slow revival.
- Paleontology
Identity of ‘Tully monster’ still a mystery
Paleontologists challenge whether the Tully monster actually was a vertebrate because it lacks key vertebrate structures.
- Anthropology
‘Monkeytalk’ invites readers into the complex social world of monkeys
In Monkeytalk, a primatologist evaluates what’s known about monkeys’ complex social lives in the wild.
- Ecosystems
If you think the Amazon jungle is completely wild, think again
Ancient Amazonians partly or fully domesticated fruit and nut trees that still dominate some forests.
- Life
Origin of photosynthesis may go further back than estimates from 50 years ago
Analyzing ancient rocks has helped push back the date when photosynthetic organisms first emerged by nearly a billion years.
- Animals
Wild elephants clock shortest shut-eye recorded for mammals
Among mammals, wild elephants may need the least amount of sleep, new measurements suggest.
- Paleontology
Oldest microfossils suggest life thrived on Earth about 4 billion years ago
A new claim for the oldest microfossils on Earth suggests that life may have originated in hydrothermal vents, but some scientists have doubts.
- Life
Bacteria genes offer new strategy for sterilizing mosquitoes
Two genes in Wolbachia bacteria could be used to sterilize mosquitoes that transmit Zika.
