Bird grammar

European starlings can recognise complex grammar in their songs in a way once thought to be exclusive to humans, according to US researchers. They showed that the bird was capable of recursion or self-embedding. This is the common characteristic of human grammars that allow for the creation of new statements by inserting words and clauses within sentences, the journal Nature reported.

Organic matter

Scientists at the Carnegie Institution have discovered that meteorites carry organic particles that originated billions of years ago either in interstellar space or in the outer reaches of the solar system. The finding, reported in the journal Science, provides clues to how organic matter evolved in the solar system.

Gene silencer

US researchers have discovered that the protein HDA6 turns off thousands of nearly identical genes in a hybrid plant. Understanding how some genes are selectively silenced may someday have practical benefits, like treatment of tumours, the researchers wrote in the journal Genes and Development.