Life
- Agriculture
Explainer: The fertilizing power of N and P
Two elements — nitrogen and phosphorus — help plants grow. When the soil doesn’t have them, farmers might add them in the form of fertilizer.
- Brain
Ow! These cells might help brains remember pain and fear
The brain may learn from traumatic experiences with the help of special cells, a new study finds. Scientists used to think these cells, called astrocytes, were just there to support others.
- Health & Medicine
Raw cookie dough’s flour could make you really sick
It’s not just the eggs in cookie dough that can pose food-poisoning risks. Even flour can sicken people if it is eaten raw.
- Genetics
New tools can fix genes one letter at a time
New tools can edit the genome one letter at a time, correcting common errors that lead to disease.
- Microbes
Magnetic heating may replace surgery to cure some infections
Scientists are testing magnetic fields as a way to kill bacteria that drugs normally cannot reach — such as those on medical implants inside the body.
- Brain
Alzheimer’s protein can sneak into the brain from the blood
Experiments in mice show that proteins linked with Alzheimer’s disease can enter the brain from the blood, then stockpile there.
- Animals
Humongous land crab dines on remote-island seabirds
A biologist has documented a coconut crab taking out a seabird as part of a study of the huge invertebrates living on an Indian Ocean archipelago.
- Brain
Trading smartphone time for sleep? Your loss
A new study shows more and more teenagers are hanging out on devices when they should be catching ZZZs, putting their health at risk.
- Ecosystems
Scientists Say: Bog
Bogs are a type of wetland in which partially decayed plants sink down and form peat.
- Animals
Alligators aren’t just freshwater animals
It’s time to change the textbooks. Alligators have been seen in salty waters snacking on sharks.
- Genetics
Doctors repair skin of boy dying from ‘butterfly’ disease
Researchers fixed a genetic defect, then replaced about 80 percent of a child’s skin. This essentially cured the boy’s life-threatening disease.
- Animals
Lasers can turn a spider’s silk into sculptures
Spider silk is strong and super-stretchy. Scientists have developed a way to sculpt that material into unusual, micro-scale shapes using lasers.
