The bones in the Smithsonian’s ‘whale warehouse’ are relics of a lost world; This virus may have stolen deadly DNA from black widow spiders; No beauty, no pain: How naked mole rats handle the heat; Pluto gets a buddy: A new dwarf planet is discovered in our solar system; The secret ingredient to early life’s primordial soup: Thickener; Dear Science: Why do I always get sick when the seasons change?;   Rachel Feltman and Sarah Kaplan on Science   The bones in the Smithsonian’s ‘whale warehouse’ are relics of a lost world How 20th century whaling turned the abundance of the Antarctic into a killing field, and the NMNH warehouse into “a collection that cannot be made again." By Sarah Kaplan  •  Read more » ADVERTISEMENT   This virus may have stolen deadly DNA from black widow spiders This bizarre virus infects bacteria that infect spiders. It makes a spider-bacteria-virus-spider turducken. By Rachel Feltman  •  Read more »   No beauty, no pain: How naked mole rats handle the heat Just a tiny evolutionary change gave these ugly rodents an insensitivity to pain. By Rachel Feltman  •  Read more »   Pluto gets a buddy: A new dwarf planet is discovered in our solar system The planet is twice as distant as Pluto and takes more than 1,000 years to orbit the sun. By Sarah Kaplan  •  Read more »   The secret ingredient to early life’s primordial soup: Thickener Scientists at Georgia Tech are trying to cook up the soup that gave rise to Earth's first organisms. By Sarah Kaplan  •  Read more »   Dear Science: Why do I always get sick when the seasons change? Does "catching a chill" really make you sick? By Rachel Feltman and Sarah Kaplan  •  Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT   Recommended for you   The Switch The day's top stories on the tech industry and tech in our lives. Sign Up »         Share Speaking of Science:       Twitter      Facebook Trouble reading? Click here to view in your browser. You received this email because you signed up for Speaking of Science. For additional free newsletters or to manage your newsletters, click here. We respect your privacy. If you believe that this email has been sent to you in error or you no longer wish to receive email from The Washington Post, click here. Contact us for help. ©2016 The Washington Post, 1301 K St NW, Washington DC 20071