Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Truffles aren’t laced with radioactive cesium
Fallout from the Chernobyl disaster hasn’t made truffles dangerously radioactive, scientists find.
- Animals
Ponds and their toads cured of dreaded disease
Treating both tadpoles and their ponds for infection by deadly Bd chytrid fungus lets midwife toads go wild again.
- Health & Medicine
When selenium is scarce, brain battles testes for it
In competition for selenium, testes draw the nutrient away from the brain.
- Psychology
Caffeine gives cocaine an addictive boost
Not only is it popular to “cut” cocaine with caffeine, the combination might be more addictive.
- Plants
Genetic battle of the sexes plays out in cukes and melons
Genetics reveals new approach to preventing inbred seeds and encouraging more fruitful crops.
- Animals
Hungry elephants turn trunks into leaf blowers
Darwin once observed an elephant using its trunk to blow an object closer. Japanese zoo elephants use the behavior to obtain food, a new study reports.
- Plants
Ancient gardeners saved the gourd
Domestication might have helped early vine plants like pumpkin survive after seed-dispersing megafauna went extinct.
- Anthropology
DNA puts Neandertal relatives in Siberia for 60,000 years
Recovered DNA suggests Denisovans inhabited Siberia for around 60,000 years.
- Plants
Ancient gardeners saved the gourd
Domestication might have helped early vine plants like pumpkin survive after seed-dispersing megafauna went extinct.
- Anthropology
DNA puts Neandertal relatives in Siberia for 60,000 years
Recovered DNA suggests Denisovans inhabited Siberia for around 60,000 years.
- Life
Microscopes have come a long way since 1665
A 350-year-old drawing in Robert Hooke’s Micrographia and an award-winning photo demonstrate the evolution of the microscope.
- Genetics
New catalog of human genetic variation could improve diagnosis
Study of human protein-coding variation reveals which genes are more likely to be involved in genetic diseases.
