Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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- Microbes
Diverse yeasts make their home on coffee and cacao beans
Yeasts in coffee and cacao are shaped by geography and human migration, genetic analysis finds.
- Genetics
Zika may have flown to Brazil in 2013
The brand of Zika currently floating around the Americas traces its origins to Asia and may have arrived in Brazil by air as early as 2013.
- Genetics
Scientists build minimum-genome bacterium
Minimal genome organism reveals how much scientists don’t know about biology.
- Animals
Unknown species hide among Texas cave crickets
A study of population structure among a genus of cave crickets reveals that new species are waiting to be discovered.
- Life
Racing for answers on Zika
In the latest issue of Science News, Editor in Chief Eva Emerson talks Zika virus, microbes, nutrition and mental health.
- Animals
It’s an herbivore-kill-herbivore world
Female prairie dogs killing babies of another species might keep competitors off the grass.
- Neuroscience
Brain holds more than one road to fear
A study on rare patients suggests that fear can take many paths through the brain.
- Animals
Female burying beetle uses chemical cue to douse love life
While raising their young, burying beetle mothers produce a chemical compound that limits their male partner’s desire to mate.
- Science & Society
Everything you ever wanted to know about hair — and then some
'Hair: A Human History' details the surprising role hair has played in human history.
- Animals
Spider diet goes way beyond insects
Veggie-eating spiders have been found on every continent except Antarctica, a new study notes.
- Paleontology
How to tell if a T. rex is expecting
A “pregnancy” test for tyrannosaurs relies on chemical analyses of medullary bone, a reproductive tissue found in female birds.
