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We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Genes & Cells
Gene therapy for dogs, plus an HIV gatekeeper and new neurons from skin in this week’s news.
By Science News - Life
Life
A look at killer dolphins, plus hibernating plankton, growing mammal brains and more in this week’s news.
By Science News - Life
Hey kitty, dogs drink like cats
High-speed video shows that canines don’t simply scoop up water, they toss it into their mouths just like their feline frenemies.
By Susan Milius - Physics
Gators go a-courtin’ with fancy physics
Their subsonic mating bellows generate Faraday waves, a phenomenon almost never seen outside the lab.
By Devin Powell - Life
Microbes may sky jump to new hosts
The role of microbes in cloud formation and precipitation may not be an accident of chemistry so much as an evolutionary adaptation by certain bacteria and other nonsentient beings, a scientist posited at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
By Janet Raloff - Life
Tarantulas shoot silk from their feet
The unique ability may give the heavy spiders a better grip and prevent deadly falls.
By Susan Milius - Life
Suspect bacterium may trigger Parkinson’s
A study in mice shows that H. pylori, the microbe that causes stomach ulcers, may also affect the brain.
- Life
Your gut microbes are what you eat
A mammal's diet strongly influences what kinds of microorganisms live in its intestines.
- Life
Numbers flap has minor implications for global extinctions
A statistical technique used to estimate rates of species disappearance is flawed, two ecologists charge — but not enough to invalidate recent dire assessments.
By Susan Milius - Life
Life
Romeo-and-Juliet leafhoppers, sleep-deprived honeybees, dragonfly aces and more in this week’s news.
By Science News - Humans
Geographic profiling fights disease
Widely used to snare serial criminals, a forensic method finds application in epidemiology.
- Life
Daytime bites for zombie ants
The living dead of the insect world show an unexplained sense of timing: a surge of strange activity in the a.m. followed by a final death grip at midday.
By Susan Milius