Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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- Planetary Science
Life’s cold start
Primordial molecules could have replicated themselves in a slushy place, new experiments suggest.
- Life
Minimolecule may explain how antidepressants work
Research finds that Prozac increases levels of a microRNA and may explain why the drugs take several weeks to work.
- Life
Streetlights turn young duds into studs
Nocturnal illumination starts youthful male blue tits chirping earlier in the morning, tempting the mates of their still-snoozing elders.
- Agriculture
A taste of the chocolate genome
Competing teams have announced the impending completion of the cacao DNA sequence.
- Life
Environmental DNA modifications tied to obesity
Chemical changes that affect gene activity could underlie many common conditions, a new study suggests.
- Life
Cuckoos thrown off by climate change
With earlier springs, the birds are duping a different mix of adoptive parents into raising their young.
- Life
Doing their part by not doing their part
Freeloaders can be good for a community, yeast experiments suggest.
- Chemistry
Cockroach brains, coming to a pharmacy near you
Insect tissue extracts show antibacterial activity in lab experiments.
- 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.
