Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
What animals’ life spans can tell us about how people age
The animal world can offer insights into human longevity.
- Animals
When bird populations shrink, females fly away
In small and shrinking populations of willow warblers, males outnumber females. That’s because girls choose to join bigger groups, a new study finds.
- Animals
How snails breathe through snorkels on land
Shells with a tube counterintuitively sealed at the end have hidden ways to let Asian snails snorkel while sealed in their shells.
- Animals
How snails breathe through snorkels on land
Shells with a tube counterintuitively sealed at the end have hidden ways to let Asian snails snorkel while sealed in their shells.
- Neuroscience
Post-stroke shifts in gut bacteria could cause additional brain injury
The gut’s microbial population influences how mice fare after a stroke, suggesting that poop pills might one day prove therapeutic following brain injury.
- Animals
Beetles that battle make better moms than ones that never fight
Female burying beetles that have to fight before reproducing spend more time caring for offspring than beetles with no fighting experience, a new study finds.
- Life
When mouth microbes pal up, infection ensues
A common and usually harmless species of mouth bacteria can help harmful bacteria become more powerful by providing oxygen.
- Health & Medicine
‘Cracking the Aging Code’ tackles aging from evolutionary perspective
In 'Cracking the Aging Code', theoretical biologist Josh Mitteldorf and writer Dorion Sagan take a different approach to the science of growing old.
- Animals
Documentary looks for meaning in Koko the gorilla’s life
'Koko — The Gorilla Who Talks' documents the nearly 45-year relationship between researcher Penny Patterson and Koko, the subject of an ape sign language project.
- Climate
Phytoplankton’s response to climate change has its ups and downs
In a four-year experiment, the shell-building activities of a phytoplankton species underwent surprising ups and downs.
- Life
Mini ‘wind farm’ could capture energy from microbes in motion
Bacteria could spontaneously organize and rotate turbines, computer simulations show.
- Life
Hightailing it out of the water, mudskipper style
A robot and a land-walking fish show how a tail might have made a huge difference for early vertebrates conquering the slippery slopes of terrestrial life.
