Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Paleontology
50-million-year-old fossil sperm discovered
Ancient worm sperm preserved in 50-million-year-old cocoons from Antarctica set age record.
- Life
The origin of biological clocks
Most of Earth’s creatures keep time with the planet’s day/night cycle. Scientists are still debating how and why the circadian clocks that govern biological timekeeping evolved.
- Animals
Some animals’ internal clocks follow a different drummer
Circadian clocks in some animals tick-tock to a different beat.
- Anthropology
Tooth, jaw fossils tell tale of North America’s last nonhuman primates
Oregon fossils provide new clues to North America’s last nonhuman primates.
- Genetics
Genetic switch wipes out tumors in mice
By switching on a single gene, researchers turned cancer cells in mice back into normal intestinal tissue.
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- Health & Medicine
Potential pain treatment’s mechanism deciphered
Scientists have new insight as to how a class of environment-sensing bone marrow cells can help safely relieve pain.
- Life
Cutting calories lets yeast live longer
A new study confirms yeast live longer on fewer calories.
- Life
A downy killer wages chemical warfare
The common fungus Beauveria bassiana makes white downy corpses of its victims.
- Genetics
Mutation-disease link masked in zebrafish
Zebrafish study shows organisms can work around DNA mutations.
- Physics
Swimming bacteria remove resistance to flow
The collective motion of swimming bacteria can virtually eliminate a water-based solution’s resistance to flow.
- Animals
Children’s classic ‘Watership Down’ is based on real science
The novel ‘Watership Down’ is the tale of a bunch of anthropomorphized rabbits. Their language may be unreal, but the animals’ behavior was rooted in science.
