Life
- Animals
Resilient hearts for deep-sea divers
How do aquatic mammals have enough energy to hunt prey while steeply dropping their heart rate to stay underwater? A new study of dolphins and seals provides clues.
- Fossils
Scientists Say: Coprolite
Every living thing and signs of its existence — right down to their wastes — can fossilize under the right conditions. When poop fossilizes, it gets a special name.
- Health & Medicine
Ongoing Ebola outbreak traced to hollow tree
Scientists suspect the current Ebola outbreak started with bats that lived in a hollow tree in Guinea. The outbreak's first victim, a two-year-old boy, often played in the tree.
- Chemistry
Air pollution can mess with our DNA
New research suggests a type of air pollution — diesel fumes — can affect your health. It inappropriately switches some genes on, while turning off others.
- Health & Medicine
A whale of a lifespan
Bowhead whales can live more than 200 years. The secret to such longevity may lie in the Arctic species’ genes. Scientists recently mapped the whale’s genetic code. They found features that protect the marine mammal against cancer and other problems related to old age.
- Life
Scientists say: Biomagnify
Chemicals in the environment can build up in an animal’s tissues. Predators who feed on these animals can accumulate more and more of the pollutants, a process known as biomagnification.
- Health & Medicine
Cold noses nurture colds
The common cold infects the nose. Scientists long have known the virus grows better there, but not why. Now, a study finds the body’s defenses simply don’t work as well under the nose’s slightly cooler temperatures.
- Computing
Virtual wounds: Computers probe healing
To better understand how the body heals wounds, scientists have begun creating computer programs that let virtual cells fight it out. These ‘computer games’ could lead to better medicines.
- Animals
Bird DNA leads to strange family tree
Field guides often group birds together by similarities in appearance or behavior. But a new study, based on DNA, confirms earlier suspicions that such groupings are only skin-deep.
- Genetics
Cell gangs may help cancer spread
A new study on mice suggests that when cancer cells strike out from a primary (first) tumor in groups, they have an especially good chance of creating new tumors elsewhere.
- Animals
Picture This: Winter brings white noses
White-nose syndrome, caused by a fungus, has killed millions of bats in the eastern United States. Now, scientists show that the disease comes and goes, by season. The finding could help scientists more effectively target any treatments.
- Agriculture
Livestock: A need to save rare breeds
New studies and ongoing work highlight why society should save rare livestock breeds — and the part that technology can play.
