Just like with toddlers, it’s often better to spell out certain words when a
Category: 5. Biology
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Some dogs can learn new words by eavesdropping on their owners
“Honey, will you take Luna to the P-A-R-K?” Both parents and dog owners know that some words should not be spoken, but only spelled, to prevent small ears from eavesdropping on the conversation. At the age of 1.5 years, toddlers can already learn…
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How did these strange, ancient organisms turn into such remarkable fossils?
In Earth’s fossil record, soft-bodied organisms like jellyfish rarely stand the test of time. What’s more, it’s hard for any animal to get preserved with exceptional detail in sandstones, which are made of large grains, are porous, and commonly…
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Scientists discover how stem cells navigate and repair brain damage after stroke
Some parts of our bodies bounce back from injury in fairly short order. The outer protective layer of the eye-called the cornea-can heal from minor scratches within a single day.
The brain is not one of these fast-healing tissues…
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Marine pollutants disrupt cellular energy production in seabirds
Common pollutants are disrupting energy production at the cellular level in wild seabirds, potentially affecting fitness, new research reveals. The study, published in Environment & Health, focused on Scopoli’s shearwaters breeding on Linosa, a…
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Scientists solve the mystery of Europe's missing dinosaurs. Spoiler alert! They were never actually missing
Ceratopsians were horned, beaked dinosaurs that once stomped their way all over North America and Asia during the Late Cretaceous period, about 80 million years ago. Their abundance in the fossil records of these continents, which were connected…
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Climate Change Is Disrupting Earth’s Nitrogen Cycle
How does climate change influence the planet’s nitrogen cycle? This is what a recent study published in Nitrogen Cycling hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated climate change’s impact on…
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How population bottlenecks shape bacterial cooperation and competition
Microbes often display cooperative behavior in which individual cells put in work and sacrifice resources to collectively benefit the group. But sometimes, “cheater” cells in the group may reap the benefits of this cooperation without incurring…
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Biomarker Predicts Therapeutic Outcomes in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the body’s nerves. Immune cells will breakdown the myelin sheath around the nerve fibers that help transport signals…
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Easy on the eyes is also easy on the brain
One can spend hours looking at a calm sunset or a clear night sky. These scenes are not only effortless on the eyes — they may also be easy on the brain. People tend to like visual stimuli that require little cognitive effort to…
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