Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Why a mountain goat is a better climber than you
For the first time, scientists have analyzed how a mountain goat climbs a cliff. Big muscles in the shoulder and neck help a lot, they find.
- Life
Cell distress chemicals help embryos quickly heal
The chemicals trigger drawstring-like structures that help close wounds.
- Life
Bird plus goggles equals new insight into flight physics
Slow-flying parrotlet produces vortices that explosively break up.
- Animals
First spider superdads discovered
Male spiders first known to give up solitary life for offspring care, often as a single parent.
- Neuroscience
Gut microbe mix may spark Parkinson’s
Parkinson’s disease symptoms might be driven by gut microbes
- Chemistry
Enzyme forges carbon-silicon bonds with a little human help
A few tweaks to an enzyme help it link carbon to silicon — a match not found in nature.
- Life
Public, doctors alike confused about food allergies
Gaps in understanding food allergies cause confusion and make it difficult to prevent, diagnose and treat them.
- Astronomy
Scientific success depends on finding light in darkness
Editor in chief Eva Emerson discusses using cleverness and persistence to uncover scientific truths.
- Life
Mitochondria variants battle for cell supremacy
Some mitochondria are more competitive than others, which could complicate treatments for mitochondrial diseases.
- Animals
Plant-eating mammals sport bigger bellies than meat eaters
Mammalian plant eaters have bigger torsos than meat eaters, a new analysis confirms, but the same might not have held true for dinosaurs.
- Animals
Animals give clues to the origins of human number crunching
Guppies, dogs, chickens, crows, spiders — lots of animals have number sense without knowing numbers.
- Oceans
Coral die-off in Great Barrier Reef reaches record levels
Bleaching has killed more than two-thirds of corals in some parts of the Great Barrier Reef, scientists have confirmed.
