Earthset

Why are frogs diverse in some parts of Africa's rainforests and less so in others? The patterns of cooling and glaciation during the last ice age would probably not have been your first answer or even your last-ditch guess, but it is, nonetheless, correct.

A new study shows that the ups and downs in house prices are far more dramatic than most people think—and that government policies play a big role in making them happen. The researchers analyzed housing markets in 23 OECD countries from 1990 to 2019. They found that during boom-and-bust periods, house prices changed by almost 6% a year, compared to a long-term trend of just 2.6%.

The cell's endoplasmic reticulum (ER) plays a central role in protein synthesis, folding, and calcium (Ca²⁺) storage. When damaged, ER-phagy (self-eating) removes affected ER regions via double-membrane vesicles called autophagosomes. However, the mechanisms underlying its initiation, signaling, and membrane origin had previously been unclear.

For more than a century, the fruit fly has been a workhorse of the biological sciences that has helped scientists to make fundamental breakthroughs in fields such as genetics and neuroscience. As it turns out, human scientists are not the only ones learning during these experiments. A recent study by Harvard neuroscientists in Current Biology shows how fruit flies are themselves figuring things out—in this case, how to manipulate balls with "play-like" experimentation.