All Stories by Helen Thompson
- Animals
Hornbills join toucans in the cool beak club
Like toucans, southern yellow-billed hornbills keep things chill with cool beaks.
- Animals
History of road-tripping shaped camel DNA
Centuries of caravan domestication and travel left some metaphorical tire marks on Arabian camel genes, researchers find.
- Plants
Venus flytraps use defensive genes for predation
Genetic analysis suggests that Venus flytraps repurposed plant defenses against herbivores to live the carnivore life.
- Animals
Why Labrador retrievers are obsessed with food
A genetic variant could explain obesity trends seen in Labrador retrievers.
- Particle Physics
A weasel has shut down the Large Hadron Collider
A tiny furball brought Earth’s most powerful particle accelerator to its knees this morning.
- Plants
Nightshade plants bleed sugar as a call to ants for backup
Bittersweet nightshade produces sugary wound goo to lure in ant protectors that eat herbivores, researchers have found.
- Animals
Peacocks twerk to shake their tail feathers
Researchers reveal the biomechanics of the peacock mating dance.
- Animals
Math models predict mysterious monarch navigation
Researchers have come up with a series of equations to predict how monarchs use their eyes and antennae to figure out how to get to Mexico.
- Animals
Pied flycatchers cruise nonstop for days to cross the Sahara
Teeny, tiny passerine birds called pied flycatchers fly day and night during their annual migration south across the Sahara.
- Health & Medicine
Five things to know about Zika
Last week, a public health poll pointed to some myths that have been circulating about Zika. Let’s bust them.
- Animals
Green was this ancient snake’s signature color
Scientists have reconstructed the skin coloration of a fossilized snake that’s about 10 million years old.
- Animals
Ancient snake wore green
Scientists have reconstructed the skin coloration of a fossilized snake that’s about 10 million years old.
