Life

  1. Health & Medicine

    Protein found to set the heart’s cadence

    Researchers have discovered a molecular metronome that sets the rhythm of the heart and blood pressure.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  2. Earth

    Antidepressants make for sad fish

    Fish may suffer substantially from even brief encounters with antidepressants, which wastewater releases into river water.

    By Janet Raloff
  3. Animals

    Lizard push-ups grab attention

    Nearby lizards more likely to get the message if its preceded by push-ups

    By Laura Sanders
  4. Paleontology

    Bacteria may play big role in forming fossils

    Bacteria can build a biofilm that preserves a tissue's structure.

    By Sid Perkins
  5. Life

    Protein crucial in preventing Parkinson’s

    By destroying bad mitochondria, Parkin protects cells

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  6. Life

    Mammoth genome approaching completion

    Genetic material extracted from the hair of woolly mammoths has revealed new information about the extinct creatures, including how closely related they are to modern elephants.

    By Sid Perkins
  7. Health & Medicine

    This is the teenager’s brain on peer pressure

    Research shared during the fourth day of the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting remained diverse: What happens in the brain when teenagers feel peer pressure, a study in mice suggesting a new way to treat depression, the best way to relearn walking after a stroke, and the long lasting effects of disrupted sleep.

    By Science News
  8. Animals

    Forensics’ next tool: Hair-collecting caterpillars

    First human DNA extraction from hair bits in moth larval case.

    By Susan Milius
  9. Humans

    Moonsleeping bad for spacewalking

    Day three of the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting offered news about Down syndrome and sleep cycles.

    By Laura Sanders
  10. Health & Medicine

    Neandertals, gut microbes and mail-order ancestry tests

    Geneticists weigh in during the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  11. Health & Medicine

    Diversity of human skin bacteria revealed

    First large-scale inventory of microbes charts types, locales of bacteria.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  12. Life

    Supreme Court lifts restriction on Navy sonar testing

    Justices overturn restrictions that require Navy to stop using sonar when marine mammals are within 2,200 yards of vessels.

    By Dina Fine Maron