Life

  1. Life

    Nearness key in microbe DNA swaps

    Close quarters, like those inside the human body, are the most important factor in determining how often bacteria pick up one another’s genes.

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  2. Life

    Python’s heart-restoring elixir works in mice

    A chemical brew used by snakes to build cardiac muscle could have medical applications.

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  3. Life

    Giant dinosaurs may have migrated

    Evidence in teeth suggests that sauropods sought greener pastures in dry North American summers.

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  4. Humans

    Infected bats can recover . . . with lots of help

    Researchers reported new data today confirming that with enough coddling, many heavily infected bats can recover. The rub: These scientists also pointed out that there really aren’t sufficient resources to save more than a handful this way.

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  5. Life

    Cause confirmed in bat scourge

    White-nose syndrome has devastated bat population in eastern North America.

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  6. Life

    Gut bacteria linked to MS

    Gut bacteria appear to play a role in initiating multiple sclerosis in mice.

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  7. Life

    Gene makes some pilots get rusty faster

    A common DNA variant affects the pace of age-related decline in performance on skilled tasks like flying a plane.

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  8. Life

    Cycads not ‘living fossils’

    Though ancient, today’s representatives of the plant group date back to a common ancestor that lived not all that long ago.

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  9. Life

    Live long, pass it on

    A tendency for a lengthy life can be inherited for several generations, even when offspring no longer have the genes for it.

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  10. Life

    Stopping a real-life ‘Contagion’

    An antibody treatment fends off the lethal Hendra virus in monkeys and may also work against the equally dangerous Nipah virus.

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  11. Life

    No shortage of dangerous DNA

    Woman who lived until age 115 didn’t lack genes that predispose her to disease, but she may have had some that protected her.

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  12. Life

    Tracking diseases from anthrax to cholera

    Whole-genome sequencing points to microbial killers.

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