Life
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- 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.
- Life
Giant honeybees do the wave
Giant bees coordinate and make waves that would rival those in any football stadium. Predators of the bees don’t find it cheering.
- Life
Female frogs play the field
A female frog insures a safe home for her young by mating with many males.
- Neuroscience
Highly wired
Men’s brain tissue shows higher density of neuron connections than similar tissue from women.
- Life
Birds duet to fight and seek
The first study to track birds in the forest via microphone arrays shows that birds double up on fight songs, or play Marco Polo in tropical shrubbery.
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- Life
Gene regulation makes the human
The regulation of genes, rather than genes alone, may have been crucial to primate evolution.
- Earth
Mammoth migrations
Ancient DNA shows North American woolly mammoths migrated back to Asia and displaced Siberian mammoths.
- Life
Gene linked to commitment-phobia
A common gene variation in men is linked to marital crises and less bonding in a study of more than 500 long-term couples.
- Neuroscience
New insights on new neurons
Neurogenesis works differently in two parts of the brain. New neurons are necessary for making memories and keep the olfactory bulb’s structure but aren’t needed for smelling, study in mice shows.
- Life
Pollinator manipulators
Manipulating floral chemistry of a type of wild tobacco reveals push-and-pull strategy.
