Life

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We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Oceans

    Whales and ships don’t mix well

    A 15-year study of blue whales off California has found that major shipping lanes cut through feeding grounds.

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  2. Neuroscience

    Hippocampus may help homing pigeons explore

    When researchers remove pigeons’ hippocampi, birds fly straighter on early parts of journey home.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Hepatitis E widespread among English blood donors

    Screening of 225,000 blood donations reveals a high prevalence of the hepatitis E virus.

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  4. Animals

    Parchment worms are best pinched in the dark

    Meek tube-dwelling worms have strange glowing mucus and build papery tubes.

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  5. Science & Society

    An app to track firefly flashings

    This summer, you can contribute to citizen science by tracking lightning bugs in your backyard.

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  6. Genetics

    Gene activity change can produce cancer

    Scientists have long thought that epigenetic changes, which alter gene activity, can cause cancer. Now they have demonstrated it in a mouse experiment.

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  7. Plants

    These trees don’t mind getting robbed

    Desert teak trees in India produce more fruit after they’ve been visited by nectar robbers.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Long-term Parkinson’s treatment sheds bad rep

    Prolonged used of levodopa doesn’t increase the severity of side effects from the Parkinson’s drug, new research shows.

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  9. Life

    Chemical evidence paved way for discovery of early life

    The discovery in 1964 of compounds related to chlorophyll in billion-year-old rocks pushed back the timing of life’s origins.

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  10. Paleontology

    Feathered dinosaurs may have been the rule, not the exception

    Newly discovered fossil suggests feathers may have been common among all dinosaur species.

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  11. Genetics

    Airborne MERS virus found in Saudi Arabian camel barn

    The air in a Saudi Arabian camel barn holds genetic fragments of MERS, a new study shows.

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  12. Ecosystems

    Moose drool can undermine grass defenses

    Saliva from moose and reindeer sabotages plants’ chemical weaponry.

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