Life
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Agriculture
Potato famine pathogen packs unusual, sneaky genome
DNA of infamous Phytophthora microbe reveals big, quick-changing zones, possibly the key to the pathogen’s vexing adaptability
- Life
One coral alga explodes with temperature increase
A rare species of coral algae exploded in population when ocean temperatures increased, a new study shows.
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- Ecosystems
Google works on a different web
Page ranking system inspires algorithm for predicting food webs’ vulnerability.
- Chemistry
New bond in the basement
Scientists identify a sulfur-nitrogen link, never before seen in living things, critical to holding the body together.
- Health & Medicine
Mice with mutation feel the burn
Instead of becoming obese, mice with a mutation in an immune gene burn off the fat they eat.
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- Animals
Play that monkey music
Man-made music inspired by tamarin calls seems to alter the primates’ emotions, a new study suggests.
- Earth
Oh, rats — there go the snails
A food fad among introduced rats has apparently crashed a once-thriving population of Hawaii’s famed endemic tree snails.
- Animals
Oops, missed that fossil iridescence
Nanostructures on a preserved feather offer the first fossil evidence of bird colors not from pigments, a new study says.
- Earth
A trip to the garbage patch
Scientists bring back samples from the oceanic garbage patch off the coast of California.
- Life
Domesticated silkworms’ secrets
After mapping the genetic book of instructions for wild and domesticated silkworms, scientists identify changes associated with the taming of these caterpillars.
