All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Microbe lets mite dads perform virgin birth
A gender-bent mite—in which altered males give birth as virgins—turns out to be the first species discovered to live and reproduce with only one set of chromosomes.
- Animals
Fruit flies hear by spinning their noses
Drosophila have a rotating ear—and odor-sensing—structure that's new to science.
-
Sitting around? (Chomp!) Back to work!
An analysis of nestmates biting each other in a wasp colony suggests that the nips and outright chomps help organize work flow in the nest.
-
Minke whales make Star Wars noises
Researchers have identified the dwarf minke whales of Australia as the source of an odd sound like the firing of a Stars Wars laser gun.
- Earth
New test traces underground forest carbon
An unusual method of studying soil respiration by girdling trees may clear up several vital mysteries in the way carbon cycles through forests.
-
Catfish can track fish wakes in the dark
Infrared photography has revealed that catfish can stalk their prey by following wakes underwater.
-
Cardinal girls learn faster than boys
A female cardinal learns about as many songs as a male but in one-third the time.
- Ecosystems
Parrot survey finds poaching but also hope
The largest review yet of wild parrot nesting finds poaching worrisomely frequent but also sees cause for hope in the efects of a U.S. protection law.
-
A Fly Called Iyaiyai
All that Latin has its light side.
-
Slave-making ants get rough in New York
The whole ant slave-making business turns more violent in New York than in West Virginia, even though it features the same species.
-
Caterpillars die rather than switch
A newly identified compound in tomatoes and other plants of the nightshade family turns hornworms into addicts that often starve rather than eat another food.
-
To save gardens, ants rush to whack weeds
Ants can grow gardens, too, and the first detailed study of their weeding techniques shows that whether a gardener has two legs or six, the chore looks much the same.
