Life

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We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Animals

    How do we know what emotions animals feel?

    Animal welfare researchers are studying the feelings and subjective experiences of horses, octopuses and more.

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  2. Paleontology

    A hole in a Triceratops named Big John probably came from combat

    The nature of the wound and signs of healing suggest that the dinosaur's bony frill was impaled by a Triceratops rival.

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  3. Animals

    How a western banded gecko eats a scorpion

    New high-speed video details how usually mild-mannered geckos shake and incapacitate their venomous prey.

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  4. Animals

    Leeches expose wildlife’s whereabouts and may aid conservation efforts

    DNA from the blood meals of more than 30,000 leeches shows how animals use the protected Ailaoshan Nature Reserve in China.

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  5. Humans

    Where you grew up may shape your navigational skills

    People raised in cities with simple, gridlike layouts were worse at navigating in a video game designed for studying the brain.

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  6. Genetics

    We finally have a fully complete human genome

    Finding the missing 8 percent of the human genome gives researchers a more powerful tool to better understand human health, disease and evolution.

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  7. Paleontology

    Mammals’ bodies outpaced their brains right after the dinosaurs died

    Fossils show that mammals’ brains and bodies did not balloon together. The animals’ brains grew bigger later.

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  8. Science & Society

    Here are the Top 10 times scientific imagination failed

    Some scientists of the past couldn’t imagine that atoms or gravity waves could one day be studied – or nuclear energy harnessed.

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  9. Microbes

    New images reveal details of two bacteria’s molecular syringes

    It’s unclear exactly how these species use their tiny injectors, but learning how they work could lead to nanodevices that target specific bacteria.

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  10. Animals

    Invasive jorō spiders get huge and flashy — if they’re female

    Taking the pulse (literally) of female jorō spiders hints that the arachnid might push farther north than a relative that has stayed put in the South.

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  11. Animals

    How scientists found an African bat lost to science for 40 years

    African researchers had been searching for the Hill’s horseshoe bat since 2013. Now, the first recording of its echolocation call may help find more.

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  12. Life

    How a virus turns caterpillars into zombies doomed to climb to their deaths

    By manipulating genes used in vision, a virus sends its host caterpillar on a doomed quest for sunlight, increasing the chances for viral spread.

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