Life
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Math
Fruit flies teach computers a lesson
Insect's nerve cell development is a model of efficiency for sensing networks.
- Paleontology
Early meat-eating dinosaur unearthed
Pint-sized, two-legged runner from Argentina dates back to the dawn of the dinos, 230 million years ago.
- Humans
Marking penguins for study may do harm
Metal flipper bands used to tell birds apart hamper survival and reproduction, a 10-year study finds.
- Life
Songbird’s testosterone surges at sight of thistle blooms
Seeing the right flowers in summer temperatures triggers male goldfinches’ reproductive readiness.
- Life
Aspens bust, diseased mice boom
As trees decline, populations of rodents that carry the deadly sin nombre virus are on the rise.
- Science & Society
Methane from BP spill goes missing
Latest sampling suggests either that microbes have already devoured the most abundant hydrocarbon produced by the leak — or that researchers have simply lost track of it.
- Paleontology
An ammonite’s last supper
A detailed X-ray image of a fossil reveals an ancient marine creature’s diet.
- Life
Spider sex play has its pluses
In the tricky world of arachnid mating, messing around with not-quite-mature females yields later benefits.
- Paleontology
Oceans may have poisoned early animals
High sulfur and low oxygen produced a deadly brew nearly 500 million years ago that apparently stalled a burst of evolutionary change.
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- Life
Robins reject red glowing grub
Parasitic worms induce a color change in their caterpillar victims that's literally repulsive to predators.
- Life
Flower sharing may be unsafe for bees
Wild pollinators are catching domesticated honeybee viruses, possibly by touching the same pollen.
