Life
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We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Keeping black bears wild
Wildlife managers compare ways to keep bears away from food and people.
- Life
Carried aloft, tiny creatures avoid parasites, sex
Dry and blowing in the breeze, rotifers are safe from a deadly fungus — and perhaps from the vulnerabilities presumed to accompany asexual reproduction.
- Earth
Dinosaurs, in living color
Researchers find microscopic structures in some fossils that may have held pigments.
By Sid Perkins - Humans
Cigarettes might be infectious
Science & Society blog: The tobacco in cigarettes hosts a bacterial bonanza — literally hundreds of different germs, including those responsible for many human illnesses, a new study finds.
By Janet Raloff - Life
For pipefish, measly Mr. Mom needs help
In species with pregnant males, females may put something extra into eggs.
By Susan Milius - Life
Carnations had evolutionary bloom boom in Europe
New species have evolved at a surprisingly rapid pace, new study suggests
- Math
Slime mold is master network engineer
Single-cell organism develops food distribution system that is as efficient as the Tokyo rail system; inspires new math model for designing dynamic systems.
- Life
MRSA bacterial strain mutates quickly as it spreads
Antibiotic-resistant microbe's detailed family tree reveals roots of the global infection.
- Life
Protein may be new target for obesity, diabetes therapies
Molecule regulates flip of a metabolic switch, helps determine how the body uses glucose.
- Life
Snail in shining armor
A deep-sea gastropod’s natural shield may offer ideas for human protection.
- Life
Jiminy Cricket! Pollinator caught in the act
Using night-vision cameras, scientists have documented the first example of cricket pollination of an orchid and discovered a new species of the insect on the island of Réunion.
- Life
Alligators breathe like birds
Tricky measurements of flow reveal that air moves through the animal in one direction.