Life

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We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Life

    How salmonella helps kill cancer cells

    A bacterial foe gives the immune system a boost to seek and destroy melanoma. The findings may point to a vaccine for melanoma and other malignancies.

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  2. Life

    Orangutans can mime their desires

    Animals’ ability to act out what they want suggests an understanding of others’ perspectives, researchers say.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    ‘Miracle’ tomato turns sour foods sweet

    Pucker no more: That seems to be one objective of research underway at a host of Japanese universities. For the past several years, they’ve been developing bio-production systems to inexpensively churn out loads of miraculin — a natural taste-altering protein that makes sour foods seem oh so sweet. Their newest biotech reactor: grape tomatoes.

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  4. Life

    Aphids, abandon ship

    Warm, humid mammal breath drives the insects to jump off plants.

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  5. Life

    Removing a barrier to regrowing organs

    Depleting proteins that prevent cancer allowed heart cells to regenerate in mouse experiments.

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  6. Life

    Gene licensing stifles R&D

    Making research findings private property can stymie innovation down the road, a new study finds.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Beneficial bacteria may protect babies from HIV

    No one argues that when it comes to feeding baby, mom’s milk is best. But mothers infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, face a dilemma: Because some of their virus can be shed in breast milk, babies risk becoming infected as they drink it. Two research teams are now investigating a germ-warfare strategy to treat such vulnerable infants.

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  8. Life

    Emerging disease may wipe out common bat in the Northeast

    Hard-hit region could lose little brown myotis to white-nose syndrome within decades

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  9. Neuroscience

    Stefan Koelsch’s music research

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  10. Life

    Sponge genes surprise

    Genome reveals that the first animals had a complex tool kit.

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  11. Life

    Bullied booby chicks end up OK

    In a seabird nest, abuse by older siblings doesn’t hamper fitness.

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  12. Life

    Marine census still counting new life-forms

    The Gulf of Mexico ranked among the top five marine regions for number of known species.

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