Life

  1. Science & Society

    Insect illustrator

    Taina Litwak is an “art department of one” in D.C. for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Systematic Entomology Laboratory.

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  2. Life

    Extensive bird family tree rewrites some history

    Unexpected pattern of evolution found across hemispheres.

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  3. Life

    Across 1,000 genomes, rarities abound

    Number of infrequent genetic variants reflects human population explosion and geographic diversity.

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  4. Life

    Hunting dark matter with DNA

    Particle physicists propose a new way to detect dark matter using the molecule of life.

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  5. Neuroscience

    Highlights from Neuroscience 2012

    A collection of reports from the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, New Orleans.

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  6. Genetics

    Cloning-like method targets mitochondrial diseases

    Providing healthy ‘power plants’ in donor egg cells appears feasible in humans, a new study finds.

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  7. Paleontology

    Earliest primate had tree-climber ankles

    A creature known only from fossils of its teeth gets some more parts.

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  8. Chemistry

    Human blood types have deep evolutionary roots

    The ABO system may date back 20 million years or more, a genetic analysis suggests.

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  9. Life

    Hind wings gave four-winged dino flight control

    Much-debated rear wings could have given Microraptor extra help in airborne maneuvers.

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  10. Life

    Fasting hormone helps mice live longer

    A protein can trick the body into entering starvation mode.

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  11. Microbes

    Protecting the planet

    Catharine “Cassie” Conley has the coolest job title at NASA: She’s the agency’s planetary protection officer. (The best title used to be “director of the universe,” but a reconfiguration a few years back eliminated that job description, she says.)

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  12. Life

    Nouveaux Antennas

    A single hairlike appendage may allow a cell to sense the outside world

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