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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
The eyespots have it after all
New experiments may reconcile conflicting views regarding what makes a peacock’s plumage attractive to females.
By Susan Milius - Life
Teamwork keeps fire ants high and dry
Scientists get a look at the physics that floats a bug's boat.
- Life
Genes & Cells
How humans evolved shorter pregnancies, plus crayfish brains and restoring nerve insulation in this week’s news.
By Science News - Life
Life
Colorful duck bills hint at sperm quality, plus dangerous jellies and throwback bees in this week’s news.
By Science News - Health & Medicine
Experimental Biology 2011 conference
Even larvae can love the blues, plus distemper’s roots, fat-busting blueberries and more meeting news.
By Science News - Life
Gut bacteria come in three flavors
Everybody has one of a trio of types — and which one seems to be less important than how the bugs behave.
- Life
Complex life hit freshwater early
Tiny fossils in Scottish rock show that cells with nuclei had spread beyond the seas by a billion years ago.
By Susan Milius - Life
Gone fishing, orangutan-style
Apes that catch fish in ponds and eat them raise the possibility that ancient hominids did the same.
By Bruce Bower - Life
New light on moths gone soot-colored
Researchers trace the mutation that led to the dramatic darkening of an insect's wings during England's industrial revolution to a region rich in genes that control color patterns.
- Life
Dangerous dinos came out after dark
Predatory dinosaurs probably stalked the night, scientists say.
- Life
Life
Salamander's algal partners, tool-using capuchins, a beneficial bacterial infection and more in this week's news
By Science News - Life
Antarctic lake hides bizarre ecosystem
Bacterial colonies form cones similar to fossilized examples of Earth’s early life.