Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Genetics
Genes for body symmetry may also control handedness
Lefties and righties can thank same genes that put hearts on left side for hand dominance, study of thousands of people’s DNA suggests.
- Animals
Young insect legs have real meshing gears
Tiny teeth on hiplike structures keep legs in sync, allowing juvenile planthoppers to jump.
- Animals
Humpbacks make a comeback in British Columbia
Whale numbers double at a feeding site in Canada.
- Microbes
Horsetail spores don’t need legs to jump
Forget legs. A plant uses curly, humidity-controlled ribbons to make epic leaps.
- Animals
Avoiding feces may be ‘luxury’ wild mice can’t afford
For a mouse in the woods, finding any food at all may trump poopy locations.
- Life
Many genes in dolphins and bats evolved in the same way to allow echolocation
Widespread changes scattered across the genomes of distantly related species cooperated to craft the trait.
- Animals
Seeking the loneliest whale
An enigmatic whale roams the North Pacific, and next year Bruce Mate will lead a monthlong expedition to find it.
- Animals
Collision Course
The tales of two ornithologists trying to prevent birds colliding with windows highlight the obstacles facing applied biology.
- Animals
Rats induced into hibernation-like state
Injection of compound causes animals to slow heartbeat, lower body temperature.
- Neuroscience
Video game sharpens up elderly brains
Adults over 60 who played for several hours a month beat untrained 20-year-olds in racing game.
- Animals
New fungus species found killing salamanders
First there was amphibian killer fungus Bd. Now there's Bs.
- Animals
Traveling with elders helps whooping cranes fly straight
Rare data show birds get more efficient the more they migrate along route between Wisconsin and Florida.
