Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Science & Society
‘House of Lost Worlds’ opens vaults of renowned natural history museum
'House of Lost Worlds' pays homage to Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History and to the colorful scientists who made the museum great.
- Health & Medicine
This week in Zika: Assessing risk, mosquito range, a transmission first and more
Several new reports document Zika infection in U.S. pregnant women, a case of male sexual transmission, the range of Zika-carrying mosquitoes and more.
- Genetics
Gene-edited mushroom doesn’t need regulation, USDA says
A CRISPR-edited mushroom isn’t like other GMOs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says.
- Animals
Math models predict mysterious monarch navigation
Researchers have come up with a series of equations to predict how monarchs use their eyes and antennae to figure out how to get to Mexico.
- Life
Having worms can be good for the gut
Parasitic worms shift gut microbes and protect against bowel disease.
- Ecosystems
Heat may outpace corals’ ability to cope
Corals may soon lose their ability to withstand warming waters.
- Genetics
Malaria parasite doesn’t pass drug immunity to its offspring
Malaria parasites resistant to the antimalarial drug atovaquone die in mosquitoes, a new study finds.
- Animals
Pied flycatchers cruise nonstop for days to cross the Sahara
Teeny, tiny passerine birds called pied flycatchers fly day and night during their annual migration south across the Sahara.
- Health & Medicine
Zika’s role as a cause of severe birth defects confirmed
A new analysis from the Centers for Disease control and Prevention confirms that Zika virus infection causes microcephaly and other severe birth defects.
- Neuroscience
Spinal cord work-around reanimates paralyzed hand
A neural prosthesis can bypass a severed spinal cord, allowing a paralyzed hand to once again move.
- Climate
Pollen becoming bee junk food as CO2 rises
Rising CO2 lowers protein content in pollen, threatening nutrition for bees.
- Plants
New species of tumbleweed is just as bad as its parents
Two species of invasive tumbleweeds hybridized into a third. A new study finds it probably will be invasive, too.
