Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Snail shell creates blue iridescence with mineral
Mollusk shines blue using calcium compound rather than organic molecule.
- Life
Cyborg beetles reveal secrets of insect flight
Remote controlled beetles swoop to the rescue in insect flight simulations.
- Paleontology
Rise of East African Plateau dated by whale fossil
A whale fossil is helping to pinpoint when the East African Plateau started to rise and how the uplift played a role in human evolution, scientists say.
- Animals
Getting stabbed is no fun for land snails
When hermaphroditic land snails mate, they stab each other with “love darts.” But being darted comes at a price, a new study finds.
- Animals
Nanocrystals explain chameleons’ color shifts
Tiny crystals embedded in chameleons’ skin reflect specific wavelengths of light based on their position, explaining how chameleons change colors.
- Animals
A brain chemical tells when to fight or flee
Crickets tally the knocks they take in a fight, and flee when their brains release nitric oxide to tell them they’ve had enough.
- Life
For healthy eating, timing matters
Limiting eating times improves heart function in fruit flies.
- Neuroscience
Sniffing out human pheromones
A new review argues that most of the chemicals labeled human pheromones, and the experiments behind them, don’t pass the smell test.
- Neuroscience
Ultrasound attacks Alzheimer’s plaques
A new study offers clues to how ultrasound may work as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
- Paleontology
How arthropods got their legs
New fossils reveal how arthropods evolved branching limbs.
- Life
Chickens to blame for spread of latest deadly bird flu
Chickens are responsible for the second wave of H7N9 bird flu in China.
- Animals
Flowers make the menu for nearly all Galapagos birds
Almost every species of Galapagos land bird has been found feeding on the nectar and pollen of flowers. Such an expansion of diet has never before been observed.
