Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Science & Society
An ecologist’s new book gets at the root of trees’ social lives
In ‘Finding the Mother Tree,’ Suzanne Simard recounts how she discovered hidden networks in forests.
- Animals
A proposed ‘quantum compass’ for songbirds just got more plausible
Quantum physics could be behind birds’ magnetic sense of direction, new measurements indicate.
- Genetics
Embryos appear to reverse their biological clock early in development
A new study suggests that the biological age of both mouse and human embryos resets during development.
- Animals
How a gecko named Mr. Frosty could help shed new light on skin cancer
The distinctive coloring and skin tumors of a type of gecko called Lemon Frost have been pegged to a gene implicated in human skin cancer.
- Paleontology
For some dinosaurs, the Arctic may have been a great place to raise a family
Fossils of baby dinosaur remains found in northern Alaska challenge the idea that some dinosaurs spent only summers in the Arctic.
- Animals
Chinese mountain cats swap DNA with domestic cats, but aren’t their ancestors
DNA suggests little-studied Chinese mountain cats have been rendezvousing with pet cats on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau since the 1950s.
- Animals
‘Fathom’ seeks to unravel humpback whales’ soulful songs
The film ‘Fathom’ on Apple TV+ follows the quest of researchers on the ocean’s surface to decipher the eerie symphony of humpback whale calls below.
- Animals
New images clarify how glasswing butterflies make their wings transparent
Close-up views of glasswing butterflies reveal the secrets behind the insect’s see-through wings: sparse, spindly scales and a waxy coating.
- Health & Medicine
Controlling nerve cells with light opened new ways to study the brain
A method called optogenetics offers insights into memory, perception and addiction.
- 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.
