All Stories by Susan Milius
-
- Life
A giant tortoise by any other name
Long, heated battle ends with a moniker for the Indian Ocean reptile.
- Animals
Termites, not fairies, cause plant circles in African deserts
Underground insect engineers create water traps in the soil, allowing rings of green grasses in the sand.
- Life
How mammals grow ears: With a flaw
A newly discovered rupture-and-repair process that occurs in embryos could explain a lot about infections and hearing defects.
- Life
Disease threatens garden impatiens
Surprising scientists, once-mild downy mildew has struck the popular blooms in 33 states.
- Animals
Native pollinators boost crop yields worldwide
Farms with crops from coffee to mangoes don’t get the best yields if they rely solely on honeybees.
- Animals
How weaver ants get a grip
Strong sticking power and quick reaction time help the insects stay put in trees.
- Life
Bees learn the electric buzz of flowers
Floral electric fields could join color and fragrance as cues to pollinators.
- Animals
Sea slug carries disposable penis, plus spares
A hermaphroditic gastropod sheds its penis after one use, then uncoils another.
- Animals
Compared with rodents, bat species carry more viruses
Viruses that can jump from animals to people may find the flying mammals a fine place to lurk.
- Animals
Cats kill more than one billion birds each year
New analysis doubles estimate of avian death tolls, revealing that hunting felines take bigger bite out of wildlife than expected.
- Animals
Dung beetles steer by the Milky Way
The insects orient themselves using starlight, researchers find in planetarium experiments.
