Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- Life
Blue leaves help begonias harvest energy in low light
The iridescent color of some begonias comes from tiny structures that also help the plant convert dim light into energy.
- Microbes
Cut leaves in bagged salads help Salmonella grow
Juice from torn-up leafy greens helps Salmonella spread in bagged salads.
- Life
Tiny toxic proteins help gut bacteria defeat rivals
A strain of E. coli makes competition-killing tiny proteins and soothes inflamed intestines.
