From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
- Ecosystems
Algae embedded in sea ice drive the Arctic food web
Scientists traced where zooplankton in the Arctic get their energy from. Many open ocean species rely on algae found in sea ice, which is disappearing.
- Microbes
Staph infections? The nose knows how to fight them
Bacteria living in some people’s noses make a compound that could help fight a nasty type of infection that laughs at other antibiotics.
- Health & Medicine
Blame your ‘environment’ for your taste in music
Some scientists had thought we are born with our musical tastes. But a new study finds that what the ear prefers depends on what we listened to as we were growing up.
- Health & Medicine
Diabetes seems to be climbing quickly in U.S. teens
A serious disease is showing up more often in kids. Many are unaware they are sick. Many more show signs they are at risk of developing the disease, for which there is no cure.
- Health & Medicine
Even some Olympic athletes cheat with drugs
Some athletes have been using banned drugs or other methods to boost their performance. But scientists are working on new ways to catch them.
- Genetics
How fake sugar can lead to overeating
Scientists have found that fruit flies and mice eat more after consuming food laced with a popular fake sugar.
- Environment
Something in plastics may be weakening kids’ teeth
The body can confuse some pollutants for a natural hormone. Researchers in France now find such pollutant exposures in childhood may lead cells to make defective tooth enamel.
- Genetics
Scientists Say: DNA sequencing
All of us have our own individual DNA. Now, scientists can determine what each individual strand is made of — a process called DNA sequencing.
- Health & Medicine
To remember something new: Exercise!
People who exercised strenuously for a half hour after learning something new cemented those memories. But the trick: Wait four hours before getting the heart pumping vigorously.
- Plants
Climate closing the gender gap for this mountain flower
Among valerian plants, males like it hotter than the females do. So a warming climate has been speeding their migration up once-cool mountainsides.
- Brain
Hormone affects how teens’ brains control emotions
Using scans of brain activity, scientists show that surging hormones drive where emotions get processed in a teen’s brain.
- Animals
This mammal has the world’s slowest metabolism
A sloth species manages to exist with a super-slow metabolism by moving little and using its environment for heating and cooling its body.
