Life
- Neuroscience
An hour after pigs’ deaths, an artificial system restored cellular life
Sensors, pumps and artificial fluid staved off tissue damage in pigs after cardiac arrest. The system may one day preserve organs for transplantation.
- Neuroscience
Spinal stimulation gives some people with paralysis more freedom
Methods that stimulate the spine with electrodes promise to improve the lives of people with spinal cord injuries, in ways that go well beyond walking.
- Animals
How slow and steady lionfish win the race against fast prey
Lionfish overcome speedy prey with persistent pursuit, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Other slow predatory fish may use the technique too.
- Animals
Whale sharks may be the world’s largest omnivores
An analysis of the sharks’ skin shows that the animals eat and digest algae.
- Health & Medicine
Tiny amoebas move faster when carrying cargo than without
A new study of the carrying capacity of single-celled amoebas may help scientists develop mini “trucks” to precisely target disease in the human body.
- Environment
Electrical bacteria may help clean oil spills and curb methane emissions
Cable bacteria are living electrical wires that may become a tool to reduce methane emissions and clean oil spills.
- Life
Like bees of the sea, crustaceans ‘pollinate’ seaweed
Crustaceans shuttle around red algae’s sex cells, helping the seaweed reproduce in a manner remarkably similar to flower pollination.
- Animals
‘Murder hornets’ have a new common name: Northern giant hornet
Anti-Asian hate crimes helped push U.S. entomologists to give a colorful insect initially dubbed the Asian giant hornet a less inflammatory name.
- Anthropology
Famine and disease may have driven ancient Europeans’ lactose tolerance
Dealing with food shortages and infections over thousands of years, not widespread milk consumption, may be how an ability to digest dairy evolved.
- Life
Moths pollinate clover flowers at night, after bees have gone home
Camera footage reveals that moths make roughly a third of the visits to red clover, highlighting the overlooked role of nighttime pollinators.
- Humans
Ancient DNA links an East Asian Homo sapiens woman to early Americans
Genetic clues point to a Late Stone Age trek from southwestern China to North America.
- Neuroscience
Herminia Pasantes discovered how taurine helps brain cells regulate their size
Mexican scientist Herminia Pasantes spent decades studying how nerve cells regulate their size and why it’s so vital.
