Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Virus triggers immune proteins to aid enemy
Virus-fighting proteins in the immune system can sometimes help out their targets instead.
- Animals
Maps show genetic diversity in mammals, amphibians around the world
Maps of genetic diversity within mammal and amphibian species provide a baseline for understanding the effects of human activity and climate change on animals.
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- Paleontology
Ancient armored fish revises early history of jaws
The fossil of a 423-million-year-old armored fish from China suggests that the jaws of all modern land vertebrates and bony fish originated in a bizarre group of animals called placoderms.
- Health & Medicine
Staph infections still a concern
Scientists have been searching for a vaccine against a deadly microbe for 50 years.
- Genetics
Zika disrupts cellular processes to impair brain development
Discoveries about how Zika virus slows brain cell development could lead to treatments.
- 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.
