Life
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
A cellular secret to long life
Longevity may depend in part on histones, proteins that keep DNA neatly spooled in the cell’s nucleus and help regulate gene activity.
- Ecosystems
Climate’s link to plague
Scientists have correlated changes in long-term Pacific Ocean temperature patterns with the incidence of a deadly bacterial pestilence, one spread by fleas living on and around mice and other rodents.
- Paleontology
The hunchback of central Spain
An exquisitely preserved dinosaur from central Spain has a hump on its back and suggestions of featherlike appendages on its arms. The primitive carnivore lived about 125 million years ago and may push back the first known instance of feathers on the dinosaur family tree.
- Earth
Not in this toad’s backyard
Yellow crazy ants meet a hungry obstacle as they spread into cacao plantations.
- Health & Medicine
Study clarifies obesity-infertility link
In female mice, high insulin levels cause a disruptive flood of fertility hormones.
- Ecosystems
No ‘dead zone’ from BP oil
As aquatic microbes dine, they consume oxygen. When too many congregate at some temporary smorgasbord of goodies, they can use up so much oxygen that a so-called dead zone develops — water with too little oxygen to sustain fish, mammals or shellfish. On Sept. 7, federal scientists reported that despite the massive release of oil from the damaged BP well in the Gulf of Mexico, no such dead zone developed.
- Life
Microbe’s survival manual
Researchers have uncovered how D. radiodurans can withstand extreme radiation.
- Health & Medicine
Gloves may head off ‘garden’ variety pneumonia
Compost feels so good, sifting through a gardener’s fingers. Unfortunately, data are showing, this soil amendment can host a germ responsible for Legionnaire’s disease, a potentially serious form of pneumonia.
- Life
Feud over family ties in evolution
Prominent scientists dispute kinship’s role in self-sacrifice among highly social creatures.
- Life
Hints of altruism among bacteria
E. coli bacteria fight antibiotics with help from drug-resistant neighbors.
- Life
Why starved flies need less sleep
Low lipid levels keep the insects buzzing past bedtime, a new study finds, suggesting a role for metabolism in regulating sleep.
- Health & Medicine
Wheat genome announcement turns out to be small beer
The DNA sequence released by U.K. team still requires assembly.
