All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Birds know road speed limits
Crows, house sparrows and other species judge when to flee the asphalt by average traffic rates rather than an oncoming car's speed.
- Plants
Dastardly daisies
This flower isn’t just any old sex cheat. It can be sexually deceptive three ways and in 3-D.
- Animals
Antarctic waters may shelter wrecks from shipworms
Ocean currents and polar front form 'moat' that keeps destructive mollusks at bay.
- Animals
Noise may disrupt a bat’s dinner
Mechanical cacophony can drown out the whispers of moving insect prey.
- Animals
Climate change may bring dramatic behavior shifts
Shifting temperatures and rainfall are expected to alter animal lifestyles from the poles to the tropics.
- Animals
Eye-tracking cameras show peahens’ wandering gaze
Data show that female birds are not so riveted by their suitors’ magnificence
- Life
Microbes can draw the line between species
Wasps' gut inhabitants can kill or save crossbreeds.
- Animals
Fattened livers prep white sharks for extreme migrations
The organ's reserves enable a long journey from waters off California to Hawaii and back, tracking data suggest.
- Animals
Hawkmoths squeak their genitals at threatening bats
Sounds of an approaching predator inspire ultrasonic rasping in insect prey.
- Animals
Highlights from the Evolution 2013 meeting
Selections from the meeting include a natural fish experiment, terrapins' light displays and why a variety of eye colors persist in people, presented June 21-25 in Snowbird, Utah.
- Animals
Gut microbes may put barrier between species
Wiping out gut bacteria in wasps saves crossbred offspring from death, suggesting that microbes may play a role in speciation.
- Animals
Cicadas’ odd life cycle poses evolutionary conundrums
Scientists are getting an idea about the odd family tree of periodical cicadas, how the insects synchronize their life cycles and why they breed side-by-side with others unsuitable for mating.
