Life
Sign up for our newsletter
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
-
- Ecosystems
Google works on a different web
Page ranking system inspires algorithm for predicting food webs’ vulnerability.
By Susan Milius - 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.
-
- 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.
By Susan Milius - 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.
By Susan Milius - 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.
- Animals
Fruity whiff may inspire new mosquito repellents
Odors from ripening bananas can jam fruit flies’ and mosquitoes’ power to detect carbon dioxide, a new study finds.
By Susan Milius - Life
Mitochondrial DNA replacement successful in Rhesus monkeys
New procedure may halt some serious inherited diseases, a study suggests.