Life

Sign up for our newsletter

We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Life

    A fight between gut parasites means a win for people

    Worms and Giardia can antagonize each other in the human intestinal tract, study of people in the Amazon suggests.

    By
  2. Animals

    Porpoises Can Teach Man Marine Diving, Detection

    Excerpt from the September 7, 1963, issue of Science News Letter

    By
  3. 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.

    By
  4. Life

    Bats can carry MERS

    DNA of a deadly respiratory virus has been found in a Saudi Arabian mammal.

    By
  5. Life

    Natural antifreeze prevents frogsicles

    Sugar and other chemicals keep Alaskan frogs from freezing completely.

    By
  6. Animals

    For sheep horns, bigger is not better

    Trade-offs between studliness and survival keep less endowed sheep in the mix.

    By
  7. Life

    Bacteria can cause pain on their own

    Microbes caused discomfort in mice by activating nerves, not the immune system.

    By
  8. 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.

    By
  9. Ecosystems

    Aging European forests full to the brim with carbon

    Trees' capacity to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is dwindling.

    By
  10. Plants

    Dastardly daisies

    This flower isn’t just any old sex cheat. It can be sexually deceptive three ways and in 3-D.

    By
  11. 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.

    By
  12. Life

    To make biofuel, cut the lignin

    Researchers disable key protein making plant sugars easier to access.

    By