Life

Sign up for our newsletter

We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Life

    Molecular Evolution

    Investigating the genetic books of life reveals new details of 'descent with modification' and the forces driving it.

    By
  2. Life

    Climate changes, and there goes the neighborhood

    The ranges of rattlesnakes and voles are likely to shift drastically with warming, analyses of past changes suggest.

    By
  3. Chemistry

    Guards of the blood-brain barrier identified

    Specialized cells called pericytes are crucial to protecting the central nervous system, two new studies demonstrate.

    By
  4. Life

    More than a chicken, fewer than a grape

    A decade after the completion of the Human Genome Project, the exact number of human genes remains elusive.

    By
  5. Life

    New species a little nipper

    A mongoose-like creature from Madagascar is the first new carnivore to be discovered in more than two decades.

    By
  6. Life

    Pterosaurs might have soared 10,000 miles nonstop

    Flight analysis suggests ancient reptiles were record setters.

    By
  7. Chemistry

    Bacteria go electric

    Microbes that wire themselves up could turn waste into power.

    By
  8. Life

    One small step for a snail, one giant leap for snailkind

    Experiments suggest that gastropods shed their shells in one fell swoop during the evolutionary transition that created slugs.

    By
  9. Life

    An oceanic endeavor

    Marine census catalogs creatures that roam all corners of the seas.

    By
  10. Life

    The unusual suspects

    With no obvious culprit in sight, geneticists do broader sweeps to identify autism’s causes.

    By
  11. Life

    Bacteria strut their stuff

    Videos show that microbes can walk on hairlike appendages.

    By
  12. Animals

    A little climate change goes a long way in the tropics

    In hot places, even minor warming could rev up metabolism in animals that don’t generate their own heat, a new analysis suggests.

    By