Life
- Animals
Pruning bug genitals revives puzzle of extra-long males
Surgical approach highlights question of length mismatch in his and hers morphologies.
By Susan Milius - Animals
An island in the Maldives is made of parrotfish poop
Coral-eating parrotfish create much of the sediment that a reef island is made of, a new study finds.
- Paleontology
Ancient brain fossils hint at body evolution of creepy-crawlies
Fossilized brains — found in the Burgess Shale in western Canada — offer clues to how arthropods morphed from soft- to hard-bodied animals.
- Genetics
Molecular scissors snip at cancer’s Achilles’ heel
Finding cancer’s vulnerable spots using CRISPR technology could lead to drugs that hit the disease hard.
By Meghan Rosen - Genetics
Humans and Neandertals mated more recently than thought
Neandertals and humans interbred in Europe until shortly before Neandertals went extinct.
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- Animals
Animal moms sacrifice a lot — sometimes even themselves
In the animal kingdom, there are bad mothers and good ones — and then there are those that let their kids eat them.
- Neuroscience
A vivid emotional experience requires the right genetics
A single gene deletion gives some people an extra vivid jolt to their emotional experience, a new study shows.
- Climate
Flood planners should not forget beavers
Beaver dams can reduce flooding downstream, new research shows.
- Microbes
Pig farm workers at greater risk for drug-resistant staph
Pig farm workers are six times as likely to carry multidrug-resistant staph than workers who have no contact with pigs.
By Beth Mole - Health & Medicine
Kids who have had measles are at higher risk of fatal infections
Measles infection leaves kids vulnerable to other infectious diseases for much longer than scientists suspected.
By Meghan Rosen - Neuroscience
Brain’s grid cells could navigate a curvy world
If we ever need to flee a dying Earth on curved space islands — as humanity was forced to do in 'Interstellar' — our brains will adapt with ease, a new mathematical analysis suggests.