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. 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.

  2. Hungry spiders tune up web jiggliness

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

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Bacteria make locust-swarm signal

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

  7. What’s learning to a grasshopper?

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

  8. 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.

  9. Animals

    Pregnant—and Still Macho

    Some of the basic theories of sexual behavior and sexual selection are getting attention thanks to a burst of new studies in the topsy-turvy social world of the seahorse, where the males get pregnant.

  10. Animals

    Hormone still rules no-tadpole frogs

    Coqui frogs may skip the tadpole stage, but within the egg, they undergo a metamorphosis ruled by thyroid hormone.

  11. Corn Defenses: Bitten plants deploy gut-rotting enzyme

    Some corn varieties that arose on the Caribbean island of Antigua defend themselves with chemical attacks that leave insect gut linings in tatters.

  12. Save Our Sounds

    Some 14 libraries around the world have built up substantial collections of natural sounds, from bird songs to fish hums.