Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Humans adjust walking style for energy efficiency
Humans can adjust their steps to walk in a way that uses the least amount of energy.
- Animals
Invading Argentine ants carry virus that attacks bees
The first survey of viruses in the globally invasive Argentine ant brings both potentially bad and good news.
- Animals
Invading Argentine ant hordes carry a virus that attacks bees
Invasive Argentine ants may be reservoirs for a virus menacing honeybees — and for previously unknown virus.
- Earth
Earth’s magnetic mystery forces scientists to get creative
In explaining the Earth’s magnetic field paradox, scientists may discover a new question with an even more interesting answer.
- Anthropology
Immortality and more in reader feedback
This week in reader feedback: Immortality and tracing ancient humans.
- Animals
Apes do the darndest things
Several chimp behaviors have researchers wondering if apes are a good model for early hominid life.
- Neuroscience
Misfolded proteins implicated in more brain diseases
Alzheimer’s, other disorders show similarity to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other prion infections.
- Life
Small number of genes trigger embryo development
New views of early embryo development reveal differences between humans and mice.
- Animals
When octopuses dance beak to beak
The larger Pacific striped octopus does sex, motherhood and shrimp pranks like nobody else.
- Anthropology
Minutes after encountering danger, lemurs yawn
Madagascar primates yawn within minutes of encountering threats.
- Oceans
Earth got first whiff of oxygen 3.2 billion years ago
Photosynthesis by early cyanobacteria pumped oxygen into Earth’s oceans 200 million years earlier than once thought, new geochemical analyses show.
- Paleontology
Earliest sea scorpion discovered in Iowa
Earliest sea scorpion discovered in impact crater in Iowa.
