Life
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Microbes
Let the bedbugs bite
Harold Harlan has been feeding bedbugs, intentionally, on his own blood since 1973. He keeps pint or quart jars in his home containing at least 4,000 bugs.
- Life
Bats can carry MERS
DNA of a deadly respiratory virus has been found in a Saudi Arabian mammal.
- Life
Natural antifreeze prevents frogsicles
Sugar and other chemicals keep Alaskan frogs from freezing completely.
- Animals
For sheep horns, bigger is not better
Trade-offs between studliness and survival keep less endowed sheep in the mix.
- Life
Bacteria can cause pain on their own
Microbes caused discomfort in mice by activating nerves, not the immune system.
- Animals
Birds know road speed limits
Crows, house sparrows and other species judge when to flee the asphalt by average traffic rates rather than an oncoming car's speed.
- Ecosystems
Aging European forests full to the brim with carbon
Trees' capacity to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is dwindling.
- Plants
Dastardly daisies
This flower isn’t just any old sex cheat. It can be sexually deceptive three ways and in 3-D.
- Life
Years or decades later, flu exposure still prompts immunity
New forms of influenza viruses can spur production of antibodies to past pandemics in people who lived through them.
- Life
To make biofuel, cut the lignin
Researchers disable key protein making plant sugars easier to access.
- Health & Medicine
Gut-brain communication failure may spur overeating
Restoring a depleted molecule in obese mice repaired their abnormal response to food.
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