All Stories by Susan Milius
- Climate
Ocean acidification may hamper food web’s nitrogen-fixing heroes
A new look at marine Trichodesmium microbes suggests trouble for nitrogen fixation in an acidifying ocean.
- Life
How a mushroom gets its glow
For the first time, biologists have pinpointed the compound that lights up in fungal bioluminescence.
- Life
How a mushroom gets its glow
For the first time, biologists have pinpointed the compound that lights up in fungal bioluminescence.
- Animals
First fluorescent frogs might see each others’ glow
A polka dot frog, the first known fluorescent amphibian, may get a visibility boost in twilight and moonlight.
- Animals
For glass frogs, moms matter after all
Brief but important maternal care may have evolved before the elaborate egg-tending of glass frog dads.
- Animals
Female guppies with bigger brains pick more attractive guys
A larger-brained female guppy may pick primo males, but all that mental machinery costs her in other ways.
- Animals
How one enslaving wasp eats through another
A wasp that forces oaks to grow a gall gets tricked into digging an escape tunnel for its killers.
- Climate
Changing climate could worsen foods’ nutrition
Climate change could aggravate hidden hunger by sapping micronutrients from soils and plants, reducing nutrition in wheat, rice and other crops.
- Neuroscience
Scratching is catching in mice
Contagious itching spreads by sight mouse-to-mouse, and scientists have identified brain structures behind the phenomenon.
- Animals
Wild elephants clock shortest shut-eye recorded for mammals
Among mammals, wild elephants may need the least amount of sleep, new measurements suggest.
- Animals
Score! Bumblebees see how to sink ball in goal, then do it better
A first lesson in six-legged soccer tests bumblebees’ ability to learn.
- Animals
Coconut crab pinches like a lion, eats like a dumpster diver
Coconut crabs use their surprisingly powerful claw for more than cracking coconuts.
