Life
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
By Meghan Rosen - 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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- Animals
Antarctic waters may shelter wrecks from shipworms
Ocean currents and polar front form 'moat' that keeps destructive mollusks at bay.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Mediterranean diet may offset genetic risk for stroke
Compared to a low-fat diet, eating fish and olive oil kept blood sugar levels lower in people with a common diabetes risk factor.
- Humans
DNA reveals details of the peopling of the Americas
Migrants came in three distinct waves that interbred once in the New World.
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- Neuroscience
The Autistic Brain
Thinking Across the Spectrum by Temple Grandin and Richard Panek.
By Meghan Rosen -
- Animals
Noise may disrupt a bat’s dinner
Mechanical cacophony can drown out the whispers of moving insect prey.
By Susan Milius