Summary: Researchers have identified brain mechanisms that help animals suppress instinctive fear responses when threats prove harmless over time. Using a visual threat model in mice, they found that specific…
Category: Life
A second version of bird flu is infecting cows. What does that mean?
While the risk to humans of exposure from cows or milk remains low, this new flu spillover from birds into cows raises the need for continued surveillance.
Will the Endangered Species Act survive Trump?
Now that Donald Trump has reassumed the presidency of the United States, scientists and legal scholars are bracing for his potential dismantling of a host of the country’s most pivotal…
A new book explores the evolutionary romance between plants and animals
When the Earth Was GreenRiley BlackSt. Martin’s Press, $29 Imagine being a paleontologist exploring Utah’s Jurassic-aged rocks. Imagine discovering the bones of a 20-meter-long, 20-ton herbivorous dinosaur. Then consider: How…
‘Women are biologically female’: Trump’s executive order will not be so easy to implement, and here’s why
One of President Trump’s first-day executive orders proclaimed that “women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.” It sounds simple, but translating it into action across a vast federal…
Ancient Ear Muscles Reactivate When We Struggle to Listen
Summary: Humans have vestigial ear muscles that once helped our ancestors focus on sounds. New research shows these muscles still activate when we strain to hear in noisy environments. Scientists…
Imaging Reveals Gut-Brain Connection in Alzheimer’s Disease
Summary: Scientists have used advanced X-ray phase-contrast tomography (XPCT) to uncover how gut health may influence Alzheimer’s disease. The study found structural changes in the gut of Alzheimer’s-affected mice, revealing…
Genetics, Not Maternal Sickness, Drives Autism Risk
Summary: A large study analyzing over 1.1 million pregnancies found no strong evidence that maternal health conditions during pregnancy cause autism. Instead, nearly all previously reported associations between maternal diagnoses…
Hotter cities? Here come the rats
If your city is getting rattier, climate change may be partially to blame. In an analysis of 16 cities around the world, those that saw the biggest temperature rises over…
Wild baboons don’t recognize themselves in a mirror
Self-awareness may be beyond primates in the wild. Chimps, organutans and other species faced with a mirror react to a dot on their face in the lab, a widely used…
