Life
- Plants
A widely studied lab plant has revealed a previously unknown organ
A cantilever-like plant part long evaded researchers’ notice in widely studied Arabidopsis thaliana, grown in hundreds of labs worldwide.
- Ecosystems
As ‘phantom rivers’ roar, birds and bats change their hunting habits
A massive experiment in the Idaho wilderness shows it’s not just human-made noises that impact ecosystems. Natural noises can too.
- Paleontology
An ancient creature thought to be a teeny dinosaur turns out to be a lizard
CT scans of hummingbird-sized specimens trapped in amber reveal that the 99-million-year-old fossils have a number of lizardlike features.
- Animals
Mouse sperm thrived despite six years of exposure to space radiation
A space station experiment suggests future deep-space explorers don’t need to worry about passing the effects of space radiation on to their children.
- Life
Cells cram DNA into the nucleus in two distinct ways
Heat maps of cell nuclei show that some cells pack chromosomes that look like crumpled balls of paper, while others are neatly stacked.
- Neuroscience
A deep look at a speck of human brain reveals never-before-seen quirks
Three-dimensional views of 50,000 cells from a woman’s brain yield one of the most detailed maps yet.
- Animals
The mere sight of illness may kick-start a canary’s immune system
Healthy canaries ramp up their immune systems when exposed to visibly sick birds, without actually being infected themselves.
- Health & Medicine
FDA approved a new Alzheimer’s drug despite controversy over whether it works
A new Alzheimer's treatment slows progression of the disease, the drug’s developers say. But some researchers question its effectiveness.
- Plants
These ferns may be the first plants known to share work like ants
Staghorn ferns grow in massive colonies where individual plants contribute different jobs. This may make them “eusocial,” like ants or termites.
- Paleontology
Something mysteriously wiped out about 90 percent of sharks 19 million years ago
Deep sediments beneath the Pacific Ocean revealed a mystery: a massive shark die-off with no obvious cause.
- Animals
Newly recognized tricks help elephants suck up huge amounts of water
New ultrasound imaging reveals what goes on inside a pachyderm’s trunk while feeding. It can snort water at the rate of 24 shower heads.
- Life
Even hard-to-kill tardigrades can’t always survive being shot out of a gun
A recent experiment put tardigrades’ indestructibility to the test by firing the critters at speeds up to 1,000 meters per second.
