A metal ion bath may make fibers stronger than spider silk
Super strong artificial silk? That’s so metal. Giving revamped silkworm silk a metallic bath may make the strands both strong and stiff, scientists report October…
Category: Life
Pterosaurs may have evolved from tiny, fast-running reptiles
A mysterious ground-dwelling reptile unearthed in a Scottish sandstone over 100 years ago turns out to be part of a famous flying family. Tiny Scleromochlus…
Video captures young mosquitoes launching their heads to eat other mosquitoes
A kind of teenager mosquito can suddenly shoot its head forward from its body — stretching its neck into a skinny cord — to bite…
‘Wonderful nets’ of blood vessels protect dolphin and whale brains during dives
If you look at parts of the circulatory system of whales and dolphins, you might think that you are looking at a Jackson Pollock painting,…
This spider literally flips for its food
For one tiny Australian spider, somersaulting is the secret to taking on ants twice its size. Ants — armed with powerful jaws and sometimes chemical…
Ancient fish fossils highlight the strangeness of our vertebrate ancestors
My, what small teeth they had. A newfound treasure trove of ancient fish fossils unearthed in southern China is opening a window into the earliest…
Has AlphaFold actually solved biology’s protein-folding problem?
As people around the world marveled in July at the most detailed pictures of the cosmos snapped by the James Webb Space Telescope, biologists got…
Drumming woodpeckers use similar brain regions as songbirds
Songbirds get a lot of love for their dulcet tones, but drummers may start to steal some of that spotlight. Woodpeckers, which don’t sing but…
Not all camouflage is equal. Here are prey animals’ best options
From crabs to caterpillars, a wide range of animals successfully use camouflage to hamper detection by hungry predators. But some concealment strategies are more effective…
Need to keep cockatoos out of your trash? Try bricks, sticks or shoes
Human trash can be a cockatoo’s treasure. In Sydney, the birds have learned how to open garbage bins and toss trash around in the streets…
DNA reveals donkeys were domesticated 7,000 years ago in East Africa
From pulling Mesopotamian war chariots to grinding grain in the Middle Ages, donkeys have carried civilization on their backs for centuries. DNA has now revealed…
The top side of an elephant’s trunk stretches more than the bottom
On a sunny day at Zoo Atlanta in 2020, Kelly the African bush elephant reached for a snack and revealed something strange. High-speed cameras tracking…
Do gophers farm roots? It’s not as clear as viral articles claim
Pocket gophers certainly don’t qualify as card-carrying 4-H members, but the rodents might be farming roots in the open air of their moist, nutrient-rich tunnels.…
Tardigrades could teach us how to handle the rigors of space travel
No beast on Earth is tougher than the tiny tardigrade. It can survive being frozen at -272° Celsius, being exposed to the vacuum of outer…
This pitcher plant species sets its deathtraps underground
Biologist Martin Dančák didn’t set out to find a plant species new to science. But on a hike through a rainforest in Borneo, he and…
A newfound dinosaur had tiny arms before T. rex made them cool
Tyrannosaurus rex’s tiny arms have launched a thousand sarcastic memes: I love you this much; can you pass the salt?; row, row, row your ……
Ed Yong’s ‘An Immense World’ reveals how animals perceive the world
An Immense WorldEd YongRandom House, $30 Emerald jewel wasps know what cockroach brains feel like. This comes in handy when a female wasp needs to…
Here’s how sea anemones launch their venomous stingers
A new look at the starlet sea anemone’s stinger gets right to the point. Live-animal images and 3-D computer reconstructions have revealed the complex architecture…
Feathers may have helped dinosaurs survive the Triassic mass extinction
Widespread volcanic eruptions around 202 million years ago had a profound effect on Earth’s climate, triggering a mass extinction event that killed off three-fourths of…
This newfound tarantula is the first known to make its home in bamboo
Meet “bambootula.” This newfound tarantula gets its nickname from the tall, stiff-shafted grass in which it makes a home in northern Thailand. Taksinus bambus, as…
Africa’s fynbos plants hold their ground with the world’s thinnest roots
Some plant roots draw a line in the sand — literally. In South Africa, you can move between cool, green forest and sunbaked shrubland in…
Why kitchen sponges are the perfect home for bacteria
Ask bacteria where they’d like to live, and they’ll answer: a kitchen sponge, please. Sponges are microbe paradises, capable of housing 54 billion bacteria per…
Fossils show a crocodile ancestor dined on a young dinosaur
For the first time, scientists have found indisputable evidence that an ancient crocodile ancestor chowed down on a dinosaur. Preserved within a fossilized crocodyliform, a…
A diamondlike structure gives some starfish skeletons their strength
Some starfish made of a brittle material fortify themselves with architectural antics. Beneath a starfish’s skin lies a skeleton made of pebbly growths, called ossicles,…
Fossils reveal what may be the oldest known case of the dino sniffles
The prehistoric world wasn’t a paradise free of disease, but diagnosing ancient ailments is tricky: Germs usually don’t fossilize well. Now, though, researchers have unearthed…
How the Human Genome Project revolutionized understanding of our DNA
In October 1990, biologists officially embarked on one of the century’s most ambitious scientific efforts: reading the 3 billion pairs of genetic subunits — the…
Fossils reveal that pterosaurs puked pellets
Picture it: Two hungry pterosaurs, one adult and one juvenile, settle down to dig in to a delicious lunch of fish. Down their gullets the…
Earth may have 9,200 more tree species than previously thought
Trillions of trees are growing on Earth, though how many kinds there are has been underestimated, a new study finds. Earth hosts roughly 64,100 known…
Male elephant seals aim to get huge or die trying
If you’re a male northern elephant seal, your car-sized bulk is crucial to your genetic legacy, since only a fraction of the very largest males…
‘Origin’ explores the controversial science of the first Americans
OriginJennifer RaffTwelve, $30 Scientific understanding of the peopling of the Americas is as unsettled as the Western Hemisphere once was. Skeletal remains, cultural artifacts such…
Gory footage confirms orca pods can kill adult blue whales
Killer whales are skilled assassins, hunting everything from herring to great white sharks. Now, for the first time, scientists witnessed a pod of killer whales…
A faulty immune response may be behind lingering brain trouble after COVID-19
A tussle with COVID-19 can leave people’s brains fuzzy. SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, doesn’t usually make it into the brain directly. But the immune…
A new device helps frogs regrow working legs after an amputation
The cells of adult frogs seem to remember how to regrow lost legs, and a new chemical kick starter helps them hop to it. Scientists…
Gut microbes help some squirrels stay strong during hibernation
Gut microbes give some squirrels a helping hand to stay strong during hibernation. The microorganisms appear to help the squirrels recycle nutrients to keep the…
Urban animals may get some dangerous gut microbes from humans
Animals moving into the big city could be getting more than they bargained for. Gut microorganisms from humans in cities may be spilling over into…
Americans tend to assume imaginary faces are male
There may be a reason we see a man, rather than a maiden, in the moon. When people spot facelike patterns in inanimate objects, those…
An Arctic hare traveled at least 388 kilometers in a record-breaking journey
Arctic hares can go the distance. A member of Lepus arcticus in northern Canada has traveled farther than anyone knew possible. BBYY, as the adult…
Scientists uncover the secret to fishing cats’ hunting success
When the famously enigmatic fishing cat hunts in deep water, it keeps calm and stays still. At least, most of the time. Asia’s Prionailurus…
A ‘trapdoor’ made of muscle and fat helps fin whales eat without choking
Some of the world’s largest whales feed by lunging through the water with mouths wide open. Scientists have long wondered how the animals withstand the…
These tiny beetles fly fast thanks to wing bristles and a weird, wide stroke
Featherwing beetles are some of the world’s smallest flying insects. Yet they can rocket along with the speed and agility of much larger insects. Now,…
Scientists vacuumed animal DNA out of thin air for the first time
On a dreary winter day in December of 2020, ecologist Elizabeth Clare strolled through the Hamerton Zoo Park in England wielding a small vacuum pump.…
A genetic analysis hints at why COVID-19 can mess with smell
For many people, one of the fastest tip-offs that they have COVID-19 is the loss of taste or smell. Now researchers have pinpointed some genetic…
Female dolphins have a clitoris much like humans’
Dolphins have active sex lives, with frequent dalliances not just for reproduction. One reason may be that the prominent female dolphin clitoris provides sexual pleasure.…
Here’s what goldfish driving ‘cars’ tell us about navigation
It might seem like a fish needs a car like — well, like a fish needs a bicycle. But a new experiment suggests that fish…
See stunning fossils of insects, fish and plants from an ancient Australian forest
A new trove of plant, insect, fish and other fossils offers an unprecedented snapshot of Australia’s wetter, forest-dominated past. McGraths Flat in New South Wales…
Drug-resistant bacteria evolved on hedgehogs long before the use of antibiotics
Beneath the prickly spines of European hedgehogs, a microbial standoff may have bred a dangerous drug-resistant pathogen long before the era of antibiotic use in…
‘Feeling & Knowing’ explores the origin and evolution of consciousness
Feeling & KnowingAntonio DamasioPantheon, $26 Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio believes that the link between brain and body is the key to understanding consciousness. In his latest…
A 1,306-legged millipede is the first to live up to its name
Millipedes, as we’ve known them, have been a lie. The Latin name for the arthropods implies an impressive set of 1,000 feet. Yet no millipede…
Here are 7 incredible things we learned this year that animals can do
This year, animals of all shapes and sizes surprised us with amazing abilities we didn’t know they had. From powerlifting to walking on the underside…
Here are 7 incredible things we learned this year that animals can do
This year, animals of all shapes and sizes surprised us with amazing abilities we didn’t know they had. From powerlifting to walking on the underside…