All Stories by Susan Milius
- Plants
Sun-tracking dads make better pollen
In one of the first tests of paternal behavior in plants, snow buttercups that were allowed to follow their natural tendency to track sun movement made more-viable pollen than did tethered blooms.
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Gene find could yield decaffeinated plants
The first published report of cloning a gene for caffeine synthesis raises the possibility of creating decaf plants.
- Animals
Skin Scam: Parasite’s host provides an insect hideaway
A group of parasitic insects called Strepsiptera can hide inside their victim by making the host form a protective bag of its own skin.
- Agriculture
Mad Cow Future: Tests explore next generation of defenses
As Canadian health officials investigate mad cow disease within the country's borders, researchers are already working on the next generation of defenses.
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Bad Dancers: Childhood chills give bees six left feet
Honeybees kept just a bit cool when young grow up looking normal but dancing badly, which impedes their ability to communicate with other bees.
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Troubling Treat: Guam mystery disease from bat entrée?
A famous unsolved medical puzzle of why a neurological disease spiked on Guam may hinge on the local tradition of serving boiled bat.
- Animals
Ballistic defecation: Hiding, not hygiene
Evading predators may be the big factor driving certain caterpillars to shoot their waste pellets great distances.
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Do people flirt like guppies?
Researchers who have studied how female guppies copy other females' choice of mate are tackling the same question in Homo sapiens.
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Beaks change songs in Darwin’s finches
A new look—and listen—at Darwin's finches finds that the famous relationship between beak size and food supply affects their courtship songs as well.
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Puppy tests flunk long-term checkups
A follow-up study of dog-personality tests suggests that they don't have the predictive power many puppy purchasers expect.
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Looking for a mate? Oh, whatever
Two cricket species don't seem to care whether they get mixed up at mating time, an oddity that may have something to do with the female's need to dine on leftover sperm.
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Social tuco-tucos develop more variety
In mustachioed rodents called tuco-tucos, group life seems to have fostered more diverse immune systems than has solitary living.
