Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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- Life
Skinny searchers keep fat ants full
By controlling movement out of an ant nest, researchers discover that ants weigh tubbiness in deciding who hunts for food.
- Life
Young flies cannibalize the plump
An evolutionary biologist’s modest proposal shocks colleagues who thought they knew everything about their favorite laboratory organism.
- Life
Blog: Arsenic-based life gets even more toxic
With a pair of new papers, scientists have driven two more stakes through the heart of a controversial research finding that its authors won’t let die.
- Paleontology
Not your typical pterosaur
A beautifully preserved fossil from Germany displays a wing unlike any ever seen.
- Life
Trout nose cells follow magnetic fields
Iron-rich tissue may be at root of a biological compass.
- Life
Egg production after birth questioned
A study finds no evidence of stem cells in adult mouse ovaries, suggesting female mammals really are born with all the gametes they’ll ever have.
- Microbes
Killing with the flip of a switch
A single genetic transformation turns mild-mannered bacteria into assassins.
- Humans
Warning to bats: Cuddle not
Ecologist Kate Langwig of Boston University and her colleagues want Eastern bats to listen up: No more cuddling — at least during hibernation. Just keep those wings to yourselves.
- Life
Space trek may help worms live long
After 11 days in orbit, nematodes showed signs of slower aging.
- Life
All dinosaurs may have had feathers
Well-preserved fossil sports long, fine plumage and a bushy tail.
- Animals
Climate adaptation may be a family affair
Newborn coral reef fish can cope with changed water conditions if their parents have already adjusted.
