Life

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. 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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  2. Life

    Cause confirmed in bat scourge

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

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  3. Life

    Gut bacteria linked to MS

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

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  4. 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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  5. 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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  6. 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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  7. 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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  8. 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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  9. Life

    Tracking diseases from anthrax to cholera

    Whole-genome sequencing points to microbial killers.

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  10. Life

    Take my enemy, please

    The risky business of relocating endangered species might have better outcomes if conservationists shift solitary animals along with their usual territorial rivals.

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  11. Life

    Study maps disease-linked gene variants

    New evidence suggests that disease-associated genetic variants are mostly involved in regulating genes.

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  12. Life

    Doubled gene means extra smarts

    Change during human evolution could have led to bigger brains.

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