Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Scientists uncover the secret to fishing cats’ hunting success
Volunteers in India have helped to explain how one of the world’s semiaquatic wild cat species hunts.
- Animals
A ‘trapdoor’ made of muscle and fat helps fin whales eat without choking
An “oral plug” may explain how lunge-feeding fin whales don’t choke and drown as they fill their mouths with prey and water while eating.
- Animals
These tiny beetles fly fast thanks to wing bristles and a weird, wide stroke
Minuscule featherwing beetles have evolved a unique way of flying that lets them match the speed of beetles three times as big.
- Chemistry
A disinfectant made from sawdust mows down deadly microbes
Antimicrobial molecules found in wood waste could be used to make more sustainable, greener disinfectants.
- Animals
Scientists vacuumed animal DNA out of thin air for the first time
The ability to sniff out animals’ airborne genetic material has been on researchers’ wish list for over a decade.
- Genetics
A genetic analysis hints at why COVID-19 can mess with smell
People with some genetic variants close to smell-related genes had an 11 percent higher risk of losing their sense of taste or smell.
- Animals
Part donkey, part wild ass, the kunga is the oldest known hybrid bred by humans
Syria’s 4,500-year-old kungas were donkey-wild ass hybrids, genetic analysis reveals, so the earliest known example of humans crossing animal species.
- Animals
The largest group of nesting fish ever found lives beneath Antarctic ice
Researchers stumbled upon a fish breeding colony of unprecedented size, spanning a territory slightly larger than Baltimore.
- Animals
Female dolphins have a clitoris much like humans’
The similarities suggest female dolphins experience sexual pleasure, which may explain why the species is so randy all the time.
- Animals
Here’s what goldfish driving ‘cars’ tell us about navigation
When measuring intelligence, the saying goes, don’t judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. But what about its ability to drive a vehicle?
- Paleontology
See stunning fossils of insects, fish and plants from an ancient Australian forest
Thousands of fossils at an Australian site show a rare glimpse into the continent’s wetter history over 11 million years ago.
- Microbes
Drug-resistant bacteria evolved on hedgehogs long before the use of antibiotics
A standoff between bacteria and antibiotic-producing fungi living on hedgehogs may have led to the rise of one type of MRSA some 200 years ago.
