Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Microbes
Leptospirosis bacterium still haunts swimming holes
Bacterial scourges lurk in warm recreational waters.
- Animals
Cause of mass starfish die-offs is still a mystery
Sea stars off the U.S. west coast started dying off en masse in 2013. Scientists are still struggling to figure out the cause.
- Animals
Why Labrador retrievers are obsessed with food
A genetic variant could explain obesity trends seen in Labrador retrievers.
- Neuroscience
A breakdown product, not ketamine, may ease depression
Ketamine’s breakdown product, not the drug itself, eases depression, a mouse study suggests.
- Animals
New species of hairy weevil named after Chewbacca
A new weevil species,Trigonopterus chewbacca, joins the ranks of insects with a Star Wars moniker.
- Life
Studying cheese reveals how microbes interact
Microbiologist Rachel Dutton uses cheese rinds to study how microbes form communities.
- Animals
Male giant water bugs win females by babysitting
Female giant water bugs prefer males already caring for eggs, an evolutionary force for maintaining parental care.
- Animals
Male giant water bugs win females by babysitting
Female giant water bugs prefer males already caring for eggs, an evolutionary force for maintaining parental care.
- Neuroscience
Evidence conflicts on iron’s role in Parkinson’s disease
Experiments yield conflicting results about whether vulnerable nerve cells have too much or too little iron.
- Health & Medicine
This week in Zika: Haiti hit early, possible monkey hosts, and more
A new test for Zika, how Haiti fits into the outbreak timeline, a look at monkeys that can carry the virus, and more in this week’s Zika Watch.
- Plants
Nightshade plants bleed sugar as a call to ants for backup
Bittersweet nightshade produces sugary wound goo to lure in ant protectors that eat herbivores, researchers have found.
- Animals
Dragons sleep like mammals and birds
Some lizards may sleep in the same way as mammals and birds, a new brain wave study finds.
