Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Neandertal relative bred with humans
Known only through DNA extracted from a scrap of bone, a Siberian hominid group suggests a much more complicated prehistory for Homo sapiens.
- Life
Genes separate Africa’s elephant herds
Genetic work reveals forest and savanna pachyderms as distinct species.
- Life
Gene genesis
About a quarter of present-day life's DNA blueprint had been sketched out by 2.8 billion years ago, a new analysis finds.
- Animals
Female chimps play with ‘dolls’
Youngsters mimic mothering by cradling sticks, reigniting debate over sex differences in toy choices.
- Earth
Bugged forests bad for climate
Trees savaged by pine beetles are slow to recover their ecological function as greenhouse gas sponges.
- Chemistry
Hornet pigment drives solar cell in lab
Though far from photosynthetic, an insect's light-harvesting apparatus intrigues scientists.
- Earth
Climate action could save polar bears
Cutting fossil fuel emissions soon would retain enough sea ice habitat for threatened species, scientists say.
- Life
Mice missing protein burn more fat
Research on the receptor for the 'hunger hormone' suggests a molecular strategy for revving up the body’s furnace.
- Life
New cellular ‘bones’ revealed
Proteins that make filaments may offer hints to how cellular scaffolding evolved.
- Life
Cells reprogrammed to treat diabetes
The testes may be an alternate source of insulin production.
- Life
Rooting for swarm intelligence in plants
Researchers argue for a type of vegetative group decision making usually associated with humans and social animals, and go out on a limb by also proposing that information may be transmitted electrically.
- Life
Jigsaw genetics
Fragments of a fetus's genome can be pieced together from the mother's blood to allow prenatal diagnosis of genetic diseases.
