Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Neuroscience
A mutated bacterial enzyme gobbles up cocaine
Cocaine is highly addictive, and those attempting to quit often relapse. Modifications to an enzyme that breaks down cocaine could help prevent abstinence setbacks.
- Animals
Emperor penguin population could decline by 2100
Emperor penguins’ reign over Antarctic sea ice could be in decline by the beginning of the 22nd century.
- Neuroscience
Shaking up the body may improve attention
Just two minutes of whole body vibrations improved young adults’ attention to detail.
- Life
One lichen is actually 126 species and counting
One supposedly well-known tropical lichen could really be several hundred kinds.
- Neuroscience
Alzheimer’s disease may come in distinct forms
Mouse experiments, if confirmed in people, imply that Alzheimer’s disease treatment should be personalized.
- Animals
Why great white shark sightings are good news
Conservation measures implemented in the 1990s halted a decline in great white sharks in the Atlantic.
- Life
Animal sex lives exposed in ‘Nature’s Nether Regions’
What the sex lives of bugs, birds, and beasts tell us about evolution, biodiversity, and ourselves.
- Animals
To ID birds, try facial recognition
Improve your backyard birding using facial recognition software.
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- Animals
Ant lions hunt despite sealed lips
Ant lions are ferocious predators, but some of them don’t have a mouth. At least not in the usual sense.
- Animals
Mysterious neurotoxin may help flatworms kill prey
Tetrodotoxin, the deadly chemical in pufferfish, could help flatworms transform their earthworm prey into puddles of goo.
