Algae vs evolution
When the going gets tough, species start merging. Whitefish species in 17 Swiss lakes began interbreeding in the mid-20th century, destroying biodiversity. The trigger was pollution, which led to algal blooms that sucked oxygen out of the deep water, forcing species to live at close quarters near the surface (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature10824).
Cells for broken hearts
The volume of scar tissue on the hearts of 17 people who had heart attacks halved six months after they were treated with injections of their own cardiac stem cells. Samples of each person’s heart muscle were taken a month…
