All Stories by Susan Milius
- Paleontology
Overlooked fossil spread first feathers
A new look at a fossil that had been lying in a drawer in Moscow for nearly 30 years has uncovered the oldest known feathered animal.
- Humans
Science Revalued: Report seeks revived Smithsonian science
A long-awaited report on science at the Smithsonian Institution calls urgently for more funding and also recommends preservation of beseiged materials-research center.
-
Ragweed may boom with global warming
An experiment that includes artificially heating plots of tallgrass prairie suggests that global warming could boost growth of ragweed, putting more pollen into the air for allergy sufferers.
- Animals
Homing Lobsters: Fancy navigation, for an invertebrate
Spiny lobsters are the first animals without backbones to pass tests for the orienteering power called true navigation.
- Animals
Ant Traffic Flow: Raiding swarms with few rules avoid gridlock
The 200,000 virtually blind army ants using a single trail to swarm out to a raid and return home with the booty naturally develop three traffic lanes, and a study now shows that simple individual behavior makes the pattern.
- Animals
Ant Traffic Flow: Raiding swarms with few rules avoid gridlock
The 200,000 virtually blind army ants using a single trail to swarm out to a raid and return home with the booty naturally develop three traffic lanes, and a study now shows that simple individual behavior makes the pattern.
-
Biodiversity may lessen Lyme disease
A survey of Lyme disease rates suggests that a greater diversity of small mammals and lizards may help keep the rates down.
-
Old lemming puzzle gets new answer
A novel analysis suggests food supply variations as the answer to the decades-old puzzle of what makes lemming populations boom and bust.
- Ecosystems
Trust That Bird? A bit of future-think lets jays cooperate
A blue jay will cooperate with a buddy for mutual gain in food despite opportunities to betray the partnership.
- Animals
Frogs Play Tree: Male tunes his call to specific tree hole
Borneo's tree-hole frog may come as close to playing a musical instrument as any wild animal does. [With audio file.]
- Agriculture
Bt corn variety OK for black swallowtails
The first published field study of butterflies and genetically altered corn finds no harm to black swallowtail caterpillars from a common corn variety.
- Animals
Hawkmoths can still see colors at night
For the first time, scientists have found detailed evidence than an animal—a hawkmoth—can see color by starlight.
