Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Plants
Tree tops sparkle with electricity during thunderstorms
Ultraviolet cameras captured faint electrical flashes from leaves and branches as storm charges built up in the atmosphere.
- Neuroscience
The remarkable brains of ‘SuperAgers’ hold clues about how we age
A new study reports signs that nerve cells in the brain keep dividing over the decades. It’s not so simple.
- Animals
A koala population’s rapid rebound may let it escape inbreeding’s perils
As koalas in southern Australia have grown from a few hundred to almost half a million, the marsupials show signs of regaining lost genetic variation.
- Plants
Chickpeas can grow in moon dirt and make seeds
Chickpeas produced seeds in simulated lunar soil, offering clues for future space farming.
- Animals
Cockroaches that eat each other’s wings turn into a fierce fighting force
The wood-feeding cockroach’s cannibalistic love bites lead to a lasting bond. Afterward, the pair prefer each other over all other roaches.
- Neuroscience
The right sounds may turn sleep into a problem-solving tool
Lucid dreamers who heard puzzle-linked soundtracks while sleeping were more likely to solve those unsolved problems the next day.
- Anthropology
The ancient human ancestor ‘Little Foot’ gets a new face
A new digital reconstruction of the face of an early Australopithecus specimen helps add details about the origins of our own species.
- Neuroscience
Why is math harder for some kids? Brain scans offer clues
Kids with math learning disabilities process number symbols differently than quantities shown as dots — and it shows up in MRIs.
- Animals
Here’s how honeyeaters and other birds thrive on sugary diets
Birds that feed on nectar or fruit evolved better mechanisms for managing metabolism, blood pressure and high glucose.
- Anthropology
Mosquitoes began biting humans more than a million years ago
A DNA analysis suggests mosquitoes shifted from nonhuman primates to early humans nearly 2 million years ago.
- Animals
Climate change could threaten monarch mass migration
Suitable milkweed habitat in Mexico may shift south, fracturing existing migration routes and possibly pushing some butterflies to stay put.
- Animals
Keeping a beat wins caterpillars friends in low places
Finding a caterpillar with rhythm was “mind-blowing,” suggesting it might be a more widespread part of animal communication than thought.
