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. Life

    Sun-oil mix deadly for young herring

    Fish embryos proved surprisingly vulnerable to a 2007 spill in San Francisco Bay.

  2. Life

    Pigeons rival primates in number task

    Trained on one-two-three, the birds can apply the rule of numerical order to such lofty figures as five and nine.

  3. Humans

    Uncommitted newbies can foil forceful few

    Decisions more democratic when individuals with no preset preference join a group.

  4. Life

    Borneo tough for red-haired vegans

    Island’s natural fruit supply iffy for orangutans.

  5. Life

    Mere fear shrinks bird families

    Just hearing recordings of predators, in the absence of any real danger, caused sparrows to raise fewer babies.

  6. Life

    Biology’s big bang had a long fuse

    The fossil record’s earliest troves of animal life are the result of more than 200 million years of evolution.

  7. Life

    Cretaceous Thanksgiving

    A fossilized feathered dinosaur dined on bird not long before its own demise.

  8. Plants

    Flirty Plants

    Searching for signs of picky, competitive mating in a whole other kingdom.

  9. Life

    How both macho and meek persist

    Research in voles demonstrates one way that evolution preserves two divergent strategies in a single population.

  10. Paleontology

    DNA suggests North American mammoth species interbred

    Supposedly separate types may really have been one.

  11. Life

    Giant beavers had hidden vocal talents

    With air passageways in its skull like no other animal known, an extinct outsized rodent may have made sound all its own.

  12. Life

    Python’s heart-restoring elixir works in mice

    A chemical brew used by snakes to build cardiac muscle could have medical applications.