Guy Levy, a neuroscientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his team studied how an octopus avoids latching onto itself. They cut off an octopus’s arm and subjected it to a series of tests, and found that octopus arms have a built-in mechanism that prevents the suckers from grabbing octopus skin. Read on for more details. 

A team of researchers headed by Simon Clark reported that they have found the "runaway star" that caused the Milky Way Galaxy's only magnetar—a rare type of neutron star that is highly dense and extremely magnetic—in the star cluster Westerlund 1 to form. Read on for more details. 

Researchers from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., created a semi-synthetic microbe, a genetically modified E. coli bacterium. They created two new nucleotides, X and Y, and fused them into the E. coli bacterium. Read on for more details. 

In a large-scale collaborative effort, scientists used two problem-solving tasks to investigate the evolution of self-control among animals. The study involved 36 species of mammals and birds. The scientists found that the species with the largest absolute brain volume showed superior cognitive powers. Read on to know more. 

In a recent study, scientists were able to identify and arrest the action of a single molecular agent that affects the body’s ability to properly use, transport, and rid itself of cholesterol. This agent called glycosphingolipid, or GSL, resides in the membranes of all cells and is mostly known for regulating cell growth. Read on for more. 

The discovery of a fossilized juvenile skeleton of Eocasea martini has helped researchers understand how carnivores transitioned into herbivores for the first time on land. Read on for more details on this. 

Scientists have discovered an ancient tundra landscape under the Greenland Ice Sheet, preserved for 2.7 million years. This discovery provides strong evidence that the Greenland Ice Sheet has persisted much longer than previously known, enduring through many past periods of global warming and remaining stable. Read on to know more. 

A statistical analysis of temperature data since 1500 rejects the hypothesis that global warming is a natural fluctuation in the earth’s climate. The study presents a new approach to the question of whether global warming in the industrial era has been caused largely by man-made emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Read on for more details. 

In a new twist in the STAP cell research controversy, Dr. Haruko Obokata was pronounced guilty by the research institute Riken on April 1, 2014. Shunsuke Ishii, chairman of the investigative committee examining the matter proclaimed that Dr. Obokata was solely responsible for the misconduct. Read on for more details. 

Physicists have made a groundbreaking finding by gathering evidence of a long-predicted twist in light from the big bang that represents the first image of ripples in the universe called gravitational waves. Read on for more details.