Susan Milius

Susan Milius

Life Sciences Writer

Life sciences writer Susan Milius has been writing about botany, zoology and ecology for Science News since the last millennium. She worked at diverse publications before breaking into science writing and editing. After stints on the staffs of The Scientist, Science, International Wildlife and United Press International, she joined Science News. Three of Susan's articles have been selected to appear in editions of The Best American Science Writing.

All Stories by Susan Milius

  1. She salamanders punish fickle mates

    Female salamanders get aggressive if the male they share a rock with wanders back after an interlude with another female.

  2. Yikes! The Lichens Went Flying

    Tales from the dark (and frequently crunchy) side of biodiversity.

  3. Animals

    Toothy valves control crocodile hearts

    The odd cog teeth of the crocodile heart may be the first cardiac valve known to control blood flow actively.

  4. Plants

    Any Hope for Old Chestnuts?

    Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the discovery of chestnut blight in the United States, but enthusiasts still haven't given up hope of restoring American chestnut forests.

  5. Fig-Wasp Upset: Classic partnership isn’t so tidy after all

    Genetic analysis suggests that a textbook example of a tight buddy system in nature—fig species that supposedly each have their own pollinating wasp species—may need to be rewritten.

  6. Animals

    Chicks open wide, ultraviolet mouths

    The first analysis of what the mouths of begging birds look like in the ultraviolet spectrum reveals a dramatic display that birds can see but people can't.

  7. Animals

    Slavemaker Ants: Misunderstood Farmers?

    A test of what once seemed too obvious to test—whether ant colonies suffer after being raided by slavemaker ants—suggests that some of the raiding insects have been getting unfair press.

  8. Animals

    Fishy Paternity Defense: Bluegill dads: Not mine? Why bother?

    Bluegill sunfish have provided an unusually tidy test of the much-discussed prediction that animal dads' diligence in child care depends on how certain they are that the offspring really are their own.

  9. Wasp redesigns web of doomed spider

    A wasp larva injects a spider with a web-altering drug, driving the spider to spin a shelter just right for a wasp cocoon.

  10. Parasite deludes rats into liking cats

    A protozoan that infects rats dims their wariness around cats and can even lead to what Oxford researchers call a fatal attraction.

  11. Banning deer boosts migratory birds

    In a 9-year test, excluding deer raised the population numbers among bird species, such as hooded warblers, that have a high conservation priority.

  12. Animals

    Costly Sexiness: All that flash puts birds at extra risk

    Distinctive his-and-her plumages increase the chance that a bird species will go extinct locally, according to an unusually far-ranging study.