Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Why mosquitoes are especially good at smelling you
How Aedes aegypti mosquitoes smell things is different from how most animals do, making hiding human odors from the insects more complicated.
- Health & Medicine
The first known monkeypox infection in a pet dog hints at spillover risk
A person passed monkeypox to a dog. Other animals might be next, allowing the virus to set up shop outside of Africa for the first time.
- Humans
Why humans have more voice control than any other primates
Unlike all other studied primates, humans lack vocal membranes. That lets humans produce the sounds that language is built on, a new study suggests.
- Animals
Zoo gorillas use a weird new call that sounds like a sneezy cough
A novel vocalization made by the captive great apes may help them draw human attention.
- Life
Sea sponges launch slow-motion snot rockets to clean their pores
Sea sponges rely on a sneezing mechanism to clear their pores, using mucus to flush out debris. This mucus provides food for other marine life.
- Animals
Relocated beavers helped mitigate some effects of climate change
Along a river in Washington state, the repositioned beavers built dams that lowered stream temperatures and boosted water storage.
- Tech
Scientists turned dead spiders into robots
In a new field dubbed “necrobotics,” researchers used a syringe and some superglue to control the dead bodies of wolf spiders.
- Neuroscience
An hour after pigs’ deaths, an artificial system restored cellular life
Sensors, pumps and artificial fluid staved off tissue damage in pigs after cardiac arrest. The system may one day preserve organs for transplantation.
- Neuroscience
Spinal stimulation gives some people with paralysis more freedom
Methods that stimulate the spine with electrodes promise to improve the lives of people with spinal cord injuries, in ways that go well beyond walking.
- Animals
How slow and steady lionfish win the race against fast prey
Lionfish overcome speedy prey with persistent pursuit, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Other slow predatory fish may use the technique too.
- Animals
Whale sharks may be the world’s largest omnivores
An analysis of the sharks’ skin shows that the animals eat and digest algae.
- Health & Medicine
Tiny amoebas move faster when carrying cargo than without
A new study of the carrying capacity of single-celled amoebas may help scientists develop mini “trucks” to precisely target disease in the human body.
