Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- Genetics
Some people are resistant to genetic disease
People who should have genetic diseases but don’t may point to new treatments.
- Health & Medicine
This week in Zika: New mouse model, virus vs. placenta, nerve insulation loss
In three new papers, scientists present a tool for studying Zika, strike down a theory of infection and offer a broad look at what the virus does to the brain.
- Genetics
Researchers edit genes in human embryos for second time
Researchers in China deploy CRISPR to alter genes in human embryos again — this time to make cells HIV-resistant.
- Health & Medicine
A sugar can melt away cholesterol
A sugar called cyclodextrin removes cholesterol from hardened arteries in mouse studies.
- Climate
Science’s inconvenient (but interesting) uncertainties
In the latest issue of Science News, Editor in Chief Eva Emerson talks climate change, mouth microbes, and synthetic life.
- Oceans
Readers question ocean health
Ocean plastics, ant behavior, pollution solutions and more in reader feedback.
- Animals
A sperm whale’s head is built for ramming
Computer simulations of a sperm whale’s head show that an organ called the junk may help protect the brain when ramming other whales — or ships.
- Animals
Piggybacking tadpoles are epic food beggars
Tadpoles beg so frantically among mimic poison frogs that researchers check to see whether they’re just scamming.
- Life
Typhoid toxin aids survival in mice
A DNA-damaging bacterial protein may prolong the lives of infected animals.
