Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Delve into the history of the fight for Earth’s endangered creatures
The new book ‘Beloved Beasts’ chronicles past conservation efforts as a movement and a science, and explores how to keep striding forward.
- Animals
Female green tree frogs have noise-canceling lungs that help them hear mates
When inflated, female green tree frog lungs resonate in a way that reduces sensitivity to the sounds of other species.
- Neuroscience
Catnip repels insects. Scientists may have finally found out how
The plant deters mosquitoes and fruit flies by triggering a chemical receptor that, in other animals, senses pain and itch.
- Genetics
DNA databases are too white, so genetics doesn’t help everyone. How do we fix that?
A lack of diversity in genetic databases is making precision medicine ineffective for many people. One historian proposes a solution: construct reference genomes for individual populations.
- Materials Science
This soft robot withstands crushing pressures at the ocean’s greatest depths
An autonomous robot that mimics the adaptations of deep-sea snailfish to extreme conditions was successfully tested at the bottom of the ocean.
- Neuroscience
Three visions of the future, inspired by neuroscience’s past and present
Three fantastical tales of where neuroscience might take us are based on the progress made by brain researchers in the last 100 years.
- Paleontology
Predatory octopuses were drilling into clamshells at least 75 million years ago
Holes found in ancient clams reveal that octopuses have been drilling into their prey for at least 25 million years longer than was previously known.
- Archaeology
An ancient dog fossil helps trace humans’ path into the Americas
Found in Alaska, the roughly 10,000-year-old bone bolsters the idea that early human settlers took a coastal rather than inland route.
- Animals
A single male lyrebird can mimic the sound of an entire flock
The Australian birds, already famous for their impressive song-copying skills, appear to be replicating the sounds of a “mobbing flock” of birds.
- Animals
Having more friends may help female giraffes live longer
A more gregarious life, even while just munching shrubbery, might mean added support and less stress for female giraffes.
- Paleontology
Climate change helped some dinosaurs migrate to Greenland
A drop in CO2 levels helped massive plant eaters called sauropodomorphs trek from South America to Greenland 214 million years ago, says a new study.
- Animals
A mountain lizard in Peru broke the reptilian altitude record
Liolaemus tacnae was photographed 5,400 meters above sea level in the Andes, breaking the highest elevation record for a reptile by about 100 meters.
