Life
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Animals
‘Bag of chips effect’ helps bats find a meal
Bats get a clue to where dinner is by listening to peers attacking prey.
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Health & Medicine
New antibiotic candidate shows promise
Tests in lab dishes and mice suggest an experimental compound called teixobactin can kill staph, TB microbes and other bacteria.
By Nathan Seppa -
Animals
How many wildebeest? Ask a satellite
High-resolution satellite imagery could offer a reliable way to count large mammals in open habitats from space.
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Neuroscience
PET scans hint at brain’s reorganization after injury
Imaging monkeys’ brains after strokelike injury is giving scientists clues to how neurons reorganize themselves so the animals can move again.
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Animals
Bowhead whales may unlock the secrets to a long, healthy life
Analyzing the genome of the bowhead whale may help scientists understand how the animals live for more than 200 years.
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Animals
Little African cats need big parks
Protecting African wildcats requires large protected areas free of feral cats to avoid the risk of the wild species disappearing through hybridization.
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Animals
White-nose syndrome messes with bats’ metabolisms
Bats with the deadly white-nose syndrome use twice as much fat for energy as their healthy companions in winter months.
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Life
Cold coddles colds
Antiviral responses aren’t as effective against common cold viruses in cooler temperatures.
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Animals
Why ground squirrels go ninja over nothing
Ground squirrels twist and dodge fast enough to have a decent chance of escaping rattlesnake attacks.
By Susan Milius -
Ecosystems
Lessons for the new year
SN Editor in Chief, Eva Emerson, reflects on looking to nature for insights on how to constructively look ahead - even if just a year -drawing from a handful of this issues natural science stories for her 2015 resolutions.
By Eva Emerson -
Neuroscience
Cold War collaboration probed possible viral cause of ALS
A mid-1960s collaboration between American and Soviet researchers explored a possible viral cause of ALS.
By Beth Mole -
Life
Insect-eating bats implicated as Ebola outbreak source
Insect-eating bats, not fruit bats, may have started the Ebola epidemic.