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. How whales, dolphins, seals dive so deep

    The blue whale, bottlenose dolphin, Weddell seal, and elephant seal cut diving energy costs 10 to 50 percent by simply gliding downward.

  2. Fading to black doesn’t empower fish

    Field studies of three-spined stickleback fish dash a textbook example of the theory of how one species can take on a competitor's characteristics.

  3. Hey, we’re richer than we thought!

    The latest inventory of life in the United States has turned up an extra 100,000 species of plants, animals, and fungi.

  4. Lady-killing genes offer pest control

    Two new fruit fly lines—with females that die on cue—could lead to changes in pest control.

  5. Plants

    Underground Hijinks: Thieving plants hack into biggest fungal network

    For the first time, plants have been caught tapping into the most widespread of soil fungi networks and using it to steal food from green plants.

  6. Hungry spiders tune up web jiggliness

    Octonoba spiders tune the sensitivity of their webs according to how hungry they are.

  7. Animals

    Eat the Kids: Are cannibal fish just freshening the O2?

    In beaugregory damselfish, males that snack on some of the eggs supposedly in their care may end up benefiting the rest of the egg clutch by making more oxygen available.

  8. Plants

    The Wood Detective

    Alex Wiedenhoeft belongs to the elite profession of wood identifier, the person to call when a crime investigator, museum curator, archaeologist, or patent attorney with an unusual client really needs to know what that splinter really is.

  9. Over there! Eat them instead!

    An ant will ignore a single golden egg bug and attack a mating pair, a choice that may explain why singles hang around pairs.

  10. Bacteria make locust-swarm signal

    A pheromone that helps drive locusts into a swarm comes from bacteria in their gut.

  11. What’s learning to a grasshopper?

    Learning the taste of nutritious food pays off in a boost to fitness, even for a grasshopper.

  12. Tree pollination needs male-only rot

    A fungus that attacks only the male flowers on the chempedak fruit tree seems to be the edible reward for pollinators—the first fungus discovered to play such a role in pollination.