All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Tiny crystals give a plain fish twinkling, colorful dots under light
Fishes’ flashing photonic crystals may provide inspiration for ultra-miniaturized sensors that work in a living body.
- Animals
Weather radar shows 30 metric tons of grasshoppers swarmed Las Vegas one night
Everything’s glitzier in Las Vegas. The most intensely lit U.S. city shows the impact of artificial light on insects on a megascale.
- Animals
A toxin behind mysterious eagle die-offs may have finally been found
A 20-year study of water weeds and cyanobacteria in the southern United States pinpoints a bird-killing toxin, and it's not your usual suspect.
- Animals
Why do sea turtles, penguins and sharks sometimes just swim in circles or spirals?
Tracking devices recorded the loops and spirals of 10 marine species. In some cases, scientists have good guesses for why; other times it’s baffling.
- Animals
A sea slug’s detached head can crawl around and grow a whole new body
Chopped-up planarians regrow whole bodies from bits and pieces. But a sea slug head can regrow fancier organs such as hearts.
- Animals
Having more friends may help female giraffes live longer
A more gregarious life, even while just munching shrubbery, might mean added support and less stress for female giraffes.
- Animals
How a tiny spider uses silk to lift prey 50 times its own weight
Dropping the right silk can haul mice, lizards and other giants up off the ground.
- Animals
A new orange and black bat species is always ready for Halloween
A new species from the sky islands of Africa’s Nimba Mountains shows bats’ colorful streak.
- Plants
Rats with poisonous hairdos live surprisingly sociable private lives
Deadly, swaggering rodents purr and snuggle when they’re with mates and young.
- Animals
A face mask may turn up a male wrinkle-faced bat’s sex appeal
The first-ever scientific observations of a wrinkle-faced bat’s courtship shows that, when flirting, the males raise their white furry face coverings.
- Plants
How passion, luck and sweat saved some of North America’s rarest plants
As the list of plants no longer found in the wild grows, botanists and conservationists search for signs of hope — and sometimes get lucky.
- Paleontology
Ancient Lystrosaurus tusks may show the oldest signs of a hibernation-like state
Oddball ancestors of mammals called Lystrosaurus might have slowed way down during polar winters.
