Life

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We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Life

    Nanoparticles: size and charge matter

    Nanoparticles can be designed for targeted delivery of drugs or genes into the body. New work reveals details of how blood proteins respond to these particles.

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  2. Life

    FDA releases guidelines for genetically modified animals

    Draft rules lay out policies for approving altered animals, including those used for food.

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  3. Life

    First lipid hormone discovered

    An omega-7 fatty acid made by fat and liver cells acts as a hormone, even mimicking the health benefits of insulin.

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  4. Climate

    Heat waves stunt grassland growth

    An abnormally hot year can significantly suppress growth in grasslands, a stifling effect that lingers well into the next year even if temperatures return to normal. It can also hinder how well the grasslands absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

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  5. Life

    Fastest spores in the West (or anywhere)

    SEE THE VIDEO: Researchers film a fungus catapulting its spores with an acceleration greater than what astronauts feel.

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  6. Life

    Fish glowing red

    Plenty of reef creatures fluoresce red, even where seawater absorbs red sunlight.

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  7. Life

    New ant species found

    One weird ant suggests lost world of ancient ants living underground

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  8. Neuroscience

    Breaking the Barrier

    A technique combining ultrasound pulses with microbubbles may help scientists move therapeutic drugs across the brain’s protective divide.

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  9. Life

    Sting Operation

    Scientists use bees and wasps to sniff out the illicit and the dangerous.

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  10. Life

    A ‘foxi’ gene for dog baldness

    A FOXI3 mutation makes some dogs bald.

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  11. Life

    This bite won’t hurt a bit

    A team dissects the physics of a mosquito bite, working to find a way to design gentler needles.

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  12. Paleontology

    Dino domination was in the cards, maybe

    A new study finds that early dinosaurs coexisted with and were outnumbered by a competing species. Dinosaurs eventually reigned supreme anyway, but perhaps not because they were better.

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