Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Plants
Floral Shocker: Blooms shake roots of flowering-plant family
A tiny aquatic plant, once thought to be related to grasses, raises new questions about the evolution of the earliest flowering plants.
- Animals
Finch Concerts: Female bird brain notes male attention
Male zebra finches sing slightly differently when serenading a female as opposed to twittering to themselves, and females react to those differences.
- Animals
Love Code: A twist of light only mantis shrimp can see
Alone in the animal kingdom, these crustaceans signal their presence to potential mates with circularly polarized light.
- Animals
Moths’ memories
Sphinx moths appear to remember experiences they had as caterpillars, suggesting some brain cells remain intact through metamorphosis.
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- Animals
Gator Aids: Gators squish lungs around to dive and roll
Alligator researchers say they have discovered a new role for lungs as maneuvering aids under water.
- Health & Medicine
Vatican Identifies Sinful Field of Science
Would the Pope have shut down Gregor Mendel’s pea studies?
- Plants
City life changes style of weed seeds
City living pushes for rapid evolution in the seed strategy of a little yellow flower along French sidewalks.
- Plants
Promiscuous orchids
When pollinators aren't loyal to a single species of orchid, the plants maintain their species integrity by stymieing reproduction.
- Paleontology
Twice upon a Time
New fossil finds suggest that the complex features of mammals originated earlier than previously thought and might even have evolved independently in different mammalian lineages.
- Animals
Hidden Depths: Antarctic krill startle deep-ocean scientists
The first camera lowered 3,000 meters to the seabed off the coast of Antarctica videoed what biologists identify as the supposedly upper-ocean species of Antarctic krill.
- Animals
Great spots for white sharks
The great white sharks of the eastern Pacific may be genetically isolated from the world's other white sharks, and tagging data reveal that the animals stick to specific routes and destinations.
