Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Biologists aflutter over just where monarchs are declining
Citizen science data fuel debate over whether weed control ruined monarch habitat and whether the butterflies are failing to reach their Mexican winter refuge.
- Animals
Simple change to fishing nets could save endangered whales’ lives
Making industrial fishing ropes weaker would reduce humpback and right whale bycatch by almost three-quarters
- Neuroscience
A voyage into Parkinson’s disease, led by patient and journalist
Jon Palfreman’s Brain Storms explores Parkinson’s disease in the past, present and future.
- Animals
Boa suffocation is merely myth
Boa constrictors don’t suffocate prey; they block blood flow, says a new study that shatters a common myth about the snakes.
- Animals
Power of pupils is in their shape
Horizontally or vertically stretched pupils may provide predators and prey with visual advantages.
- Neuroscience
Brain scans hint at reasons for stress-eating
Moderate stress changes brain behavior in ways that may lead to poor food choices.
- Animals
Gibbons have been disappearing from China for centuries
Gibbons are now found in only a small area of southwestern China. But they once thrived across much of the country, records show.
- Neuroscience
Claim of memory transfer made 50 years ago
Scientist’s claims of transferred memories were more fiction than fact.
- Genetics
Ancestral humans had more DNA
A new genetic diversity map marks where humans have gained and lost DNA.
- Animals
First known venomous frogs stab with toxin-dripping lip spikes
Two Brazilian frogs jab foes with venoms more deadly than pit vipers'.
- Life
Chemical magic transforms skin cells into nerve cells
Just a few chemicals can transform skin cells from Alzheimer’s patients and healthy people into nerve cells.
- Life
Source of liver’s ability to regenerate found
Scientists have identified stem cells behind the liver’s legendary ability to replenish its tissue.
