All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
It’s a bad idea for a toad to swallow a bombardier beetle
Toads are tough. But there are some insects even they shouldn’t swallow.
- Paleontology
This ancient creature looks like a spider with a tail
A newly discovered ancient creature looks like a spider and has silk spinners and spidery male sex organs.
- Animals
A peek into polar bears’ lives reveals revved-up metabolisms
Polar bears have higher metabolisms than scientists thought. In a world with declining Arctic sea ice, that could spell trouble.
- Animals
A killer whale gives a raspberry and says ‘hello’
Tests of imitating sounds finds that orcas can sort of mimic humans.
- Animals
Slower speed, tricky turns give prey a chance against cheetahs and lions
A bonanza of data on wild predators running shows that hunting is more than sprinting.
- Health & Medicine
Here’s the key ingredient that lets a centipede’s bite take down prey
A newly identified “spooky toxin” launches a broad attack but might be eased with a version of a known drug.
- Life
Light pollution can prolong the risk of sparrows passing along West Nile virus
Nighttime lighting prolongs time that birds can pass along virus to mosquitoes that bite people.
- Animals
The mystery of vanishing honeybees is still not definitively solved
The case has never been fully closed for colony collapse disorder, and now bees face bigger problems.
- Paleontology
Tiny scales in ancient lagoon may be the first fossil evidence of the moth-butterfly line
Fancy liquid-sipper mouthparts might have evolved before the great burst of flower evolution
- Animals
Blowflies use drool to keep their cool
Personal air conditioning the blowfly way: Dangle a droplet of saliva and then reswallow.
- Animals
Robot fish shows how the deepest vertebrate in the sea takes the pressure
Tests with a robot snailfish reveal why the deep-sea fish has mysterious goo in its body.
- Health & Medicine
Worries grow that climate change will quietly steal nutrients from major food crops
Studies show that rice, wheat and other staples could lose proteins and minerals, putting more people at risk of hunger worldwide.
