All Stories by Susan Milius
-
Female pipefish face toughest odds
In the world of pipefish, which are cousins of sea horses, sexual selection may reverse, wherein females battle each other for male favor through sexual selection.
- Earth
Toxic Pfiesteria inhabit foreign waters
The notorious Pfiesteria microbes, implicated in fish kills and human illness along the mid-Atlantic U.S. coast, have turned up in Norway.
- Ecosystems
Tadpole Science Gets Its Legs . . .
The amazingly complex tadpole now shines in ecological studies.
- Animals
Hanging around Mom’s web helps everybody
For nearly grown spiderlings, lingering in their mother's web instead of setting off on their own turns out to be a boon for the mom, as well as themselves.
- Ecosystems
Mistletoe, of all things, helps juniper trees
A mistletoe that grows on junipers may do the trees a favor by attracting birds that spread the junipers' seeds.
- Animals
Unknown squids—with elbows—tease science
Glimpses from around the world suggest that the ocean depths hold novel, long-armed squids that belong in no known family.
- Animals
Crows appear to make tools right-handedly
A study of 3,700 leaf remnants from crows making tools suggests that the birds prefer to work "right-handed."
- Animals
Female ducks can double eggs by trickery
Female goldeneye ducks can double their offspring by sneaking eggs into other females' nests before settling down to a nest of their own.
- Animals
New lizard ties for ‘world’s smallest’
A newly discovered lizard small enough to curl up on a dime ties for the title of the smallest of its kind in the world.
-
Beer-flavoring compounds guide insects
The class of compounds that give beer its bitterness does two more sober jobs in Hypericum flowers.
-
Africanized bees rescue loner trees
Africanized bees pollinate some of the big Brazilian forest trees now stranded in the middle of cleared land away from their native pollinators.
- Earth
Transgenes migrate into old races of maize
Genes from bioengineered corn have somehow strayed into the traditional varieties of southern Mexico.
