Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Ecosystems
The Birds Are Falling: Avian losses could hit ecosystems hard
If many bird populations dip toward extinction in the coming century, widespread harm could come to ecosystems that depend on these birds.
- Animals
Song Fights
Birds settle many of their disputes by some rough-and-tough singing bouts, and recording equipment now lets researchers pick a song fight, too.
- Animals
Grow-Slow Potion: Pheromone keeps bee youngsters youthful
Researchers have identified a compound made by the senior workers in a honeybee colony that prolongs the time that teenage bees stay home babysitting.
- Animals
Color at Night: Geckos can distinguish hues by dim moonlight
The first vertebrate to ace tests of color vision at low light levels—tests that people flunk—is an African gecko.
- Paleontology
Flightless Feathered Friends
New finds of fossil penguins, as well as analyses of the characteristics and DNA of living penguins, are shedding light on the evolution of these flightless birds.
- Paleontology
Plenty of dinosaurs yet to be found
Despite a dramatic surge in dinosaur discoveries in recent years, paleontologists won't soon run out of interesting new fossils to unearth, a new analysis suggests.
- Paleontology
. . . and the big bird that didn’t
The California condor, one of today's largest and rarest birds, may have survived the last ice age because of its varied diet.
- Paleontology
The big fish that went away . . .
Fossils found near Charleston, S.C., suggest that an extinct species of billfish related to today's swordfish and marlin would easily exceed the lengths documented for world-record specimens of those oft-sought sports fish.
- Ecosystems
One-Celled Socialites
A wave of research on the social lives of bacteria offers insights into the evolution of cooperation and may lead to medical breakthroughs that neutralize virulent bacterial strains.
- Paleontology
Dino Dwarf: Island living may have led to ancient downsizing
Fossils unearthed at a German quarry hint that members of one species of dinosaur that lived in the region about 152 million years ago evolved to be abnormally small because of the constraints of its island ecosystem.
- Plants
Give and Take: Plant parasites dole out genes while stealing nutrients
New evidence suggests that parasitic plants can transfer their own genes into host plants.
- Animals
Elephant Voices
Elephants are highly social animals and have a well-developed method of communicating with each other. For nearly 30 years, scientists at a national park in Kenya have been studying elephants and their behavior. The researchers have found that these intelligent beasts use more than 70 kinds of vocal sounds and 160 different visual and tactile […]
