Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Froggie Needs a Name – and Help
To help raise awareness about the plight of frogs and toads, which are disappearing globally, Amphibian Ark is selling formal naming rights to an unusual frog.
- Life
Protective protein
Discovering how bacteria defend themselves from foreign DNA might improve techniques for using microbes as little factories to make human proteins.
- Animals
Wild innovation
Researchers have published a rare description of a wild chimpanzee devising and modifying a novel form of tool use.
- Animals
Polar bears listed
Polar bear declared "threatened," but Secretary limits decision's impact.
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- Life
Identifying viable embryos
New genetic tests to distinguish viable from nonviable embryos may help eliminate risky multiple births from fertility procedures.
- Tech
The flap on dragonfly flight
New experiments have revealed an aerodynamic trick that dragonflies use to fly efficiently — a trick that engineers could exploit to improve the energy efficiency of small aerial vehicles with a similar design.
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- Plants
One gene, many shapes
A single genetic change may lead to the notable diversity of leaves seen in Galapagos Island tomato plants.
- Health & Medicine
BOOK REVIEW | Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life
Review by Elizabeth Quill.
- Life
BOOK LIST | Manipulative Monkeys: The Capuchins of Lomas Barbudal
Primatologists follow the social lives of these big-brained Costa Rican monkeys. Harvard Univ. Press, 2008 358 p. $45 MANIPULATIVE MONKEYS
- Plants
BOOK LIST | Winter Trees
In this picture book, a child uses sight and touch to identify seven common trees, even after they’ve lost their leaves. Charlesbridge Publishing, 2008, 30 p. $15.95 WINTER TREES
