Life

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We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Plants

    Climatic effects of tree-killing hurricanes

    A new analysis suggests storm damage returns millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year.

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  2. Life

    Function for green fluorescent protein

    Scientists find that the glowing molecule also passes electrons, offering a new clue about the natural function of a protein that's become ubiquitous in molecular biology.

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  3. Ecosystems

    Living Physics

    From green leaves to bird brains, biological systems may exploit quantum phenomena.

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  4. Animals

    Swarm Savvy

    How bees, ants and other animals avoid dumb collective decisions

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  5. Plants

    Landscaper’s darling hybridizes into an environmental nuisance

    Variation underlies the Callery pear tree’s transformation .

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  6. Life

    Cattle genome sequenced

    Researchers unlock the DNA of M-O-O.

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  7. Plants

    Oops, missed that tree

    Until now, an acacia common in its African homeland had no scientific name

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  8. Animals

    Ants do real estate the simple way

    Tracking ants with anti-shoplifter RFID tags has inspired a new, simplified view of how a colony finds a home

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  9. Earth

    A little air pollution boosts vegetation’s carbon uptake

    Aerosols bumped up world’s plant productivity by 25 percent in the 1960s and 1970s, new research suggests.

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  10. Earth

    Fossil of a walking seal found

    A fossil skeleton discovered in the Canadian Arctic could represent a missing link in pinniped evolution.

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  11. Life

    Fossil evidence for a Goldilocks tyrannosaur

    A newly described species of tyrannosaur helps fill in details about the fearsome meat-eating dinosaurs.

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  12. Life

    New neurons don’t heal

    New neurons produced in the brain after a stroke don’t grow into all the cell types needed to heal the wound.

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