Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Seen Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster? Data suggest the odds are low
Floe Foxon is a data scientist by day. But in his free time, he applies his skills to astronomy, cryptology and sightings of mythical creatures.
- Animals
These brainless jellyfish use their eyes and bundles of nerves to learn
No brain? No problem for Caribbean box jellyfish. Their seemingly simple nervous systems can learn to avoid obstacles on sight, a study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
How brain implants are treating depression
This six-part series follows people whose lives have been changed by an experimental treatment called deep brain stimulation.
- Neuroscience
Today’s depression treatments don’t help everyone
In the second story in the series, deep brain stimulation is a last resort for some people with depression.
- Health & Medicine
The science behind deep brain stimulation for depression
The third part of the series explores the promising brain areas to target for deep brain stimulation for depression.
- Neuroscience
What’s it like to live with deep brain stimulation for depression?
The fourth article in the series explores the physical and emotional challenges of experimental brain implants for depression.
- Health & Medicine
There’s a stigma around brain implants and other depression treatments
The fifth article in the series asks why people are so uncomfortable with changing the brain.
- Neuroscience
What’s the future of deep brain stimulation for depression?
The final story of the series describes efforts to simplify and improve brain implants for severe depression.
- Animals
For the first time, researchers decoded the RNA of an extinct animal
The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, was hunted nearly to extinction. Now RNA extracted from a museum specimen reveals how its cells functioned.
- Health & Medicine
A catalog of all human cells reveals a mathematical pattern
Smaller cells occur in larger numbers in the human body, and cells of different size classes contribute equally to our overall mass.
- Animals
Some cannibal pirate spiders trick their cousins into ‘walking the plank’
A pirate spider in Costa Rica uses a never-before-seen hunting strategy that exploits the way other spiders build webs.
- Animals
A little snake’s big gulp may put all other snakes to shame
The humble Gans’ egg-eater can wrap its mouth around bigger prey than any other snake of its size.
