All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Feral cats appear to be pathetic at controlling New York City’s rats
When cats are on the prowl, rats may become harder to see, but roaming cats actually killed only a few.
- Animals
Jenny Tung wants to know how social stresses mess with genes
Evolutionary anthropologist Jenny Tung is untangling the many health effects of life as a social animal.
- Agriculture
Can science build a better burger?
Researchers hope to replace whole animal agriculture and feed the world with lab-made meats or plants.
- Animals
These songbirds violently fling and then impale their prey
A loggerhead shrike that skewers small animals on barbed wire gives mice whiplash shakeups.
- Climate
As temperatures rise, so do insects’ appetites for corn, rice and wheat
Hotter, hungrier pests likely to do 10 percent to 25 percent more damage to grains for each warmer degree.
- Animals
This killifish can go from egg to sex in two weeks
The fastest known maturing vertebrate in the lab is even faster in the wild.
- Animals
With one island’s losses, the king penguin species shrinks by a third
Once home to the largest known colony of king penguins, Île aux Cochons has lost most of its birds for unknown reason.
- Microbes
How a slime mold near death packs bacteria to feed the next generation
Social amoebas that farm bacteria for food use proteins to preserve the crop for their offspring.
- Climate
Bloodflowers’ risk to monarchs could multiply as climate changes
High atmospheric carbon dioxide levels can weaken the medicinal value of a milkweed that caterpillars eat, and high temperatures may make the plant toxic.
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- Plants
The most ancient African baobabs are dying and no one knows why
Scientists aren’t sure what’s killing the oldest African baobabs, nine of which have lost big chunks or died in the last 13 years.
- Animals
Bees join an exclusive crew of animals that get the concept of zero
Honeybees can pass a test of ranking ‘nothing’ as less than one.
