News
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ChemistryShark Sense: Gel helps animals detect thermal fluctuations
New studies suggest that clear jelly under sharks' skin can enable the animals to detect minute changes in seawater temperature—potentially leading them to prey.
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AnimalsBetter Than Real: Males prefer flower’s scent to female wasp’s
In an extreme case of sex fakery, an orchid produces oddball chemicals to mimic a female wasp's allure so well that males prefer the flower scent to the real thing.
By Susan Milius -
AnthropologyDairying Pioneers: Milk ran deep in prehistoric England
Chemical analyses of prehistoric pot fragments indicate that English farmers milked livestock beginning around 6,000 years ago, providing the earliest confirmed evidence of dairying anywhere in the world.