Biology
AI reveals a shared language guiding cell development
As an embryo develops from a small cluster of stem cells, those once "blank slate" cells begin to take on more specialized roles like brain, liver or muscle cells and organize the…
The same immune cells play opposing roles in tissue regeneration's balancing act
In a study of fingertip regeneration, a team led by JAX senior research scientist James Godwin found that some immune cells in mice can attack and kill cells needed to rebuild bon…
The force behind our strength: How mechanical processes regulate muscle development
Skeletal muscles grow and regenerate as individual precursor cells—called myoblasts—fuse into long fibers from which mature muscle fibers develop. How they coordinate this process…
What land crabs reveal about evolution's repeats
How can bodies adapt to survive environments completely different from the ones they evolved for?
Elon Musk reveals ‘world’s first flying car’ at Tesla event
The Tesla Roadster 2 drove up a curved ramp before using SpaceX rocket thrusters to fly, flip and landElon Musk has revealed Tesla’s latest model, which he claims will be the worl…
Whales take different routes but still reach dinner on time
Some travelers take the scenic route. Others step on the gas and head straight for the destination. New research suggests southern right whales do much the same when crossing the …
Endangered species in Canada face extensive delays receiving protection
For more than 20 years, Canada's Species at Risk Act (SARA) has protected wildlife that are at risk of being lost from Canadian lands and waters. Once a species is listed as extir…
A rare family of barn owls moved into Manhattan's Upper West Side. New Yorkers are captivated
Manhattan's Upper West Side has been reveling in the company of its latest celebrities: A family of barn owls nested in a water tower atop a building near Central Park.
Can extra weight weigh on your dog's brain?
Scientists have learned a lot about what happens to the human body as we age. But there's still much to learn about how other species age, including dogs. Even carrying extra weig…
Newly discovered viruses reveal an evolutionary missing link
Researchers at the University of Miami have identified a group of previously unknown viruses that bridge an evolutionary gap between viruses and cellular protein compartments, a d…
Imperial woodpecker returns to life as a detailed digital specimen
Researchers have created a detailed, animated 3D model of the imperial woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis), a spectacular bird that has not been confirmed in the wild since 1956. …
Food, fear and physics help explain group behavior from plankton to whales
The open ocean is a dynamic environment, where food is patchy, predators are plentiful, and oceanographic conditions change constantly. Life in the pelagic environment—the offshor…
Nearly half of reef-building coral species face higher risk of extinction
A University of Portsmouth scientist has helped lead a major global study, which finds that 44% of the world's reef-building coral species are now threatened with extinction—and w…
Baby lobster decline foreshadows major midcoast population losses, study shows
A steep drop in baby lobsters provided an early warning of the sharp decline in adult lobsters along Maine's midcoast, a new University of Maine study shows.
Molecular snapshots reveal how viral enzymes switch between inserting and removing DNA
Bacteriophages, or viruses that infect bacteria, have a fiendishly simple purpose in life: attach to a bacterial cell, inject their DNA and then use the host's genetic machinery t…
Targeting the cell cycle for cancer therapy: From the discovery of CDK9 to precision medicine and beyond
More than 30 years after the direct connection was established between the molecular machinery controlling cell division and cancer, a new paper traces the evolution of cyclin-dep…
Two brain circuits coordinate fruit flies' wing and leg movements to threaten rivals
Limbs evolved as a means of locomotion. From the primitive rotating flagella of bacteria to the wings of flies and even our own legs, animals use these appendages to travel to fin…
Researchers find that some weeds get supercharged by an indirect hit of herbicide
A brush with low doses of the herbicide dicamba spurs oxalis, a weed commonly known as wood sorrel, to produce more flowers, University of Michigan researchers have discovered. Th…
Better together? Coral fusion could throw bleached reefs a lifeline
When corals are stressed by pollution, high water temperatures or other environmental changes, they can lose the microscopic algae living inside them and on which they depend for …
Lion tracks from the ice age: How two ways of seeing brought ancient animals to life
The coastline near the southern tip of Africa looked vastly different between about 400,000 years ago and 70,000 years ago, compared with today. At times it lay as much as 100km (…
New DNA sequencing methods detect rare mutations acquired as bodies grow and age
Somatic mutations, the DNA changes that occur as our bodies grow and age, not only hold an important key to cancer but are emerging as the seeds of a wide range of common, noncanc…
Norman McCubbin obituary
My brother Norman McCubbin, who has died aged 77, was a scientist who worked at the forefront of experimental particle physics.A leading light in experiments that took place on th…
El Niño a 'terrifying' threat to coral reefs: UN biodiversity expert
A super El Niño fueling record ocean temperatures poses a "terrifying" threat to the world's fragile coral reefs, the chair of the U.N.'s expert nature panel told AFP.
Plants use a molecular measuring tape to tell fungal friend from foe
Chitin, a chain of repeating sugar molecules, is the main building block of fungal cell walls. When fungi grow or are broken down, fragments of chitin chains of different lengths …