Life
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Dolphins wield tools of the sea
A long-term study of dolphins living off Australia’s coast finds that a small number of them, mostly females, frequently use sea sponges to forage for fish on the ocean floor.
- Chemistry
Engineered bacteria create high-energy biofuel
Scientists alter E. coli microbes to make a high-energy alcohol not produced naturally
- Health & Medicine
Malaria vaccine closer to reality
The success of two trials sets the stage for a final, large-scale trial that could mean approval of what would be the first vaccine against Malaria.
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- Space
Meteorites could have thickened primordial soup
New experiments show that extraterrestrial impacts that occurred early in our planet's history could have created the raw materials for life.
- Health & Medicine
Honeybee CSI: Why dead bodies can’t be found
Virus could explain one symptom of colony collapse.
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- Ecosystems
Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet by Oliver Morton
HarperCollins, 2008, 460 p., $28.95.
- Life
Fat cells also linked to prion infection
Disease-causing misfolded proteins at home in a growing list of tissues, organs.
- Life
Spanish Inquisition couldn’t quash Moorish, Jewish genes
Finding suggests modern history, not just prehistory, can leave a strong mark on a region’s genetic signature.
- Life
Funny smell may have split bee species
Among male bees that create their own perfume, a change in the sense of smell might mean a split in species.
- 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.
