All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Octopuses can ‘see’ with their skin
Eyes aren’t the only cephalopod body parts with light-catching molecules.
- Animals
Vampire squid take mommy breaks
The vampire squid again defies its sensationalist name with a life in the slow lane.
- Life
Male stag beetles face weighty problem for flight
Male stag beetles need enormous mandibles to fend off other males and find a mate, but computer simulations show that the giant jaws make running and flying very difficult.
- Animals
Ants snap jaws, shoot skyward, escape death
Emergency trap jaw launchings help some ants pass death tests.
- Animals
Deepwater dweller is first known warm-hearted fish
The opah, a deep-diving fish, can keep much of its body warmer than its surroundings, making it similar to warm-blooded birds and mammals.
- Animals
Nighttime light pollution sabotages sex pheromones of moths
Artificial lighting at night can trick female moths into releasing skimpy, odd-smelling sex pheromones.
- Animals
Pruning bug genitals revives puzzle of extra-long males
Surgical approach highlights question of length mismatch in his and hers morphologies.
- Microbes
Possible nearest living relatives to complex life found in seafloor mud
New phylum of sea-bottom archaea microbes could be closest living relatives yet found to the eukaryote domain of complex life that includes people.
- Plants
How slow plants make ridiculous seeds
Coco de mer palms scrimp, save and take not quite forever creating the world’s largest seeds.
- Animals
Bees may like neonicotinoids, but some may be harmed
Two high-profile tests raise worries that bees can’t avoid neonicotinoid pesticides and that wild species are at special risk.
- Animals
Finland’s brown bears on surprise fast track to recover diversity
Brown bears in southern Finland show surprisingly fast improvements in genetic diversity and connections with other bears.
- Animals
When mom serves herself as dinner
For this spider, extreme motherhood ends with a fatal family feast.
