Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
- Plants
The faster trees grow, the younger they die
As climate change spurs forest tree growth, it also shortens trees’ lives. That results in a quicker release of climate-warming carbon back into the atmosphere.
- Chemistry
2020 chemistry Nobel goes for CRISPR, the gene-editing tool
Only eight years after its development, CRISPR has revolutionized genetics. It also just brought Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna acclaim.
- Life
Let’s learn about alligators and crocodiles
Alligators and crocodiles seem similar — but they live in different places and look different, too.
- Animals
A single chemical may draw lonely locusts into a hungry swarm
Swarms of locusts can destroy crops. Scientists have discovered a chemical that might make locusts come together in huge hungry swarms.
- Animals
Are coyotes moving into your neighborhood?
How do coyotes survive in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago? Researchers and citizen scientists are working together to find answers.
- Health & Medicine
A Hong Kong man got the new coronavirus twice
His is the first confirmed case of reinfection with this virus. His second bout was detected by accident, because he showed no symptoms.
- Animals
To figure out your dog’s ‘real’ age, you’ll need a calculator
What’s your dog’s human-equivalent age? Just multiply how old it is times seven, right? Uh, no. And here’s why.
- Archaeology
This cave hosted the oldest known human remains in Europe
Bone fragments, tools and other finds in Bulgaria suggest that Homo sapiens moved rapidly into Eurasia as early as 46,000 years ago.
- Animals
Why elephants and armadillos might easily get drunk
Stories of drunken elephants may not be a myth. Differences in a gene for breaking down alcohol could explain how they get tipsy.
- Health & Medicine
How to find the next pandemic virus before it finds us
Wild animals carry viruses that can sicken people. Monitoring those viral hosts that pose the greatest risk might help prevent a new pandemic.
- Environment
Decades-long project is linking our health to the environment
Started in 1959, this California study is one of the oldest ongoing research projects in the world.
- Genetics
What would it take to make a unicorn?
Onward’s dumpster-diving unicorns seem like an impossibility. But scientists have some ideas about how unicorns could become real.
