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. Animals

    Climate change now bigger menace than forest loss for snowshoe hares

    Shorter snow seasons push climate change ahead of direct habitat loss as menace for Wisconsin snowshoe hares.

  2. Animals

    It’s an herbivore-kill-herbivore world

    Female prairie dogs killing babies of another species might keep competitors off the grass.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Efforts to control mosquitoes take on new urgency

    The major mosquito that is spreading Zika virus has quirks that make it one of the toughest to fight.

  4. Animals

    Plain ol’ Texas rat snakes basically match vipers for speed

    Rattlesnakes and other vipers are not the fastest fangs in the West.

  5. Ecosystems

    Australian fairy circles first to be found outside Africa

    Strange patterns of grassland bald spots called fairy circles show up in Western Australia.

  6. Ecosystems

    FDA predicts no significant environmental impact from GM mosquitoes

    The FDA has taken a step in the process of deciding whether to allow the first test release in the United States of genetically modified mosquitoes to fight diseases such as Zika.

  7. Plants

    How to keep seagrasses as happy as a clam

    Drought can do more damage to seagrass meadows if their partnership with clams break down.

  8. Animals

    New chameleon has strange snout, odd distribution

    A new species of chameleon from Tanzania echoes the unusual range of the kipunji monkey.

  9. Animals

    Is Amy Tan actually ‘thrilled’ a leech is named after her?

    Novelist Amy Tan answers a lingering question about celebrities honored in scientific names of new species — her namesake is a leech.

  10. Animals

    Rock ant decisions swayed by six-legged social media

    When rock ants start influencing each other with one-on-one social contact, a colony’s collective decisions can change.

  11. Animals

    Saving salamanders from amphibian killer may take extreme measures

    Experience from lethal Bd fungus outbreak is helping researchers defend North America’s salamander paradise from new Bsal threat.

  12. Microbes

    Cyanobacteria use their whole bodies as eyeballs

    Little spheres of cyanobacteria cells roughly focus light on sensitive compounds that let them walk in the right direction.