Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Parchment worms are best pinched in the dark
Meek tube-dwelling worms have strange glowing mucus and build papery tubes.
- Science & Society
An app to track firefly flashings
This summer, you can contribute to citizen science by tracking lightning bugs in your backyard.
- 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.
- Plants
These trees don’t mind getting robbed
Desert teak trees in India produce more fruit after they’ve been visited by nectar robbers.
- 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.
- 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.
- Paleontology
Feathered dinosaurs may have been the rule, not the exception
Newly discovered fossil suggests feathers may have been common among all dinosaur species.
- 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.
- Ecosystems
Moose drool can undermine grass defenses
Saliva from moose and reindeer sabotages plants’ chemical weaponry.
- Life
Mouse sperm parties make for straight swimmers
Mouse sperm hunt for eggs in packs, but grouping doesn’t boost speed. Instead, gangs of the reproductive cells move in straighter lines.
- Animals
Elephant’s big nose wins most sensitive sniffer
A genetic survey reveals that African elephants harbor more smell sensors than any other known animal.
- Neuroscience
For rats, a break from stress isn’t worth the relief
An unplanned vacation from stress might seem like a good idea, but a new study in rats shows that unpredictable escapes from pressure produce more strain on the first day back.
