Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
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- 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.
- Chemistry
Melting icebergs fertilize ocean
Releasing extra iron into the water boosts carbon dioxide uptake by plankton.
- Life
Genes & Cells
Why mosquitoes don’t get malaria, plus brain stem cells and hot cancer treatment in this week’s news.
- Life
Body attacks lab-made stem cells
In mice, the immune system targets and destroys reprogrammed adult skin cells, raising questions about their medical potential.
- Life
New fungi the dark matter of mushrooms
Scientists see the first images of an ancient lineage of microbes that can’t be grown in the lab.
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- Life
Animals quickly colonized freshwater
Fossilized worm burrows show that life had moved beyond the oceans by 530 million years ago.
- Life
Fungus strikes but doesn’t kill European bats
Organism that is devastating North American populations might have coevolved with hosts overseas.
- Health & Medicine
Going Under
While every anesthetic drug has its own effect, scientists know little about how the various versions work on the brain to transport patients from normal waking awareness to dreamless nothingness.
