Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Chemistry
Synthetic heredity molecules emulate DNA
Scientists have created six XNAs that, like the genetic building blocks they mimic, can store and pass on hereditary information.
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- Life
Daytime anesthesia gives bees jet lag
Honeybees, as stand-ins for surgery patients, show drug’s aftereffects as biorhythms get out sync.
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- Animals
Chimps show lethal side
A collaborative scientific effort offers an inside look at ape homicides.
- Life
Baboons show their word skills
Monkeys learn to distinguish words from nonwords, suggesting ancient evolutionary roots for reading.
- Physics
Insects covered in tough stuff
Locust exoskeleton could inspire new, fracture-resistant materials.
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- Life
Pigeon navigation finding called off-course
Iron-containing cells that had been reported in beaks look mostly like immune system components, a new study finds.
- Life
Bat-killing fungus is a European import
Tracing the origins of the strain that causes white-nose syndrome in U.S. animals to Europe, scientists show that infection ups arousal rate during hibernation, depleting energy stores.
- Humans
Bat killer is still spreading
Since 2006, some 6 million to 7 million North American bats have succumbed to white-nose syndrome, a virulent fungal disease. That figure, issued in January by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, at least sextupled the former estimate that biologists had been touting. But the sharp jump in the cumulative death toll isn’t the only disturbing new development. On April 2, scientists confirmed that white-nose fungus has apparently struck bats hibernating in two small Missouri caves. The first signs of clinical disease have also just emerged in Europe.
