Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Great tits sing with syntax
Humans are no longer the only species to use compositional syntax. Great tits do, too.
- Neuroscience
Readers respond to stress, tattoos, and the universe
Stress, tattoos, cosmic origins and more reader feedback.
- Health & Medicine
Cells from fat mend bone, cartilage, muscle and even the heart
Stem cells and other components of fat can be coerced to grow into bone, cartilage, muscle or to repair the heart.
- Health & Medicine
Molecules found to counter antibiotic resistance
Molecules made in a lab can foil antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
- Health & Medicine
New techniques regrow lens, cornea tissue
Preliminary stem cell discoveries may restore lenses and corneas.
- Anthropology
H. erectus cut, chewed way through evolution
A diet that included raw, sliced meat changed the face of early Homo evolution, scientists say.
- Oceans
Swirls of plankton decorate the Arabian Sea
The dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans is taking over in the Arabian Sea, posing a potential threat to its ecosystem.
- Neuroscience
Scientists still haven’t solved mystery of memory
50 years have refined a basic understanding of the brain, but scientists are still exploring how memories form, change and persist.
- Animals
New chameleon has strange snout, odd distribution
A new species of chameleon from Tanzania echoes the unusual range of the kipunji monkey.
- Climate
Earlier blooming intensifies spring heat waves in Europe
The early arrival of spring plants due to climate change amplifies springtime heat waves in Europe, new climate simulations suggest.
- Animals
Mite-virus alliance could be bringing down honeybees
Parasitic mites and a virus have a mutually beneficial alliance while attacking honeybees.
- Animals
Parasites help brine shrimp survive toxic waters
When brine shrimp are infected with tapeworms, the tiny aquatic organisms survive better in warm waters and in those laced with toxic arsenic.
