All Stories by Susan Milius
- Life
Tarantulas shoot silk from their feet
The unique ability may give the heavy spiders a better grip and prevent deadly falls.
- Life
Numbers flap has minor implications for global extinctions
A statistical technique used to estimate rates of species disappearance is flawed, two ecologists charge — but not enough to invalidate recent dire assessments.
- Life
Daytime bites for zombie ants
The living dead of the insect world show an unexplained sense of timing: a surge of strange activity in the a.m. followed by a final death grip at midday.
- Life
New fungi the dark matter of mushrooms
Scientists see the first images of an ancient lineage of microbes that can’t be grown in the lab.
- Life
Giant ants once roamed Wyoming
The first complete fossil found in North America suggests warm spells in the far north allowed big insects to spread.
- Life
Antarctic humpbacks make a krill killing
Late-arriving sea ice enhances crustacean feast for whales, but the bounty may be fleeting.
- Life
The eyespots have it after all
New experiments may reconcile conflicting views regarding what makes a peacock’s plumage attractive to females.
- Life
Complex life hit freshwater early
Tiny fossils in Scottish rock show that cells with nuclei had spread beyond the seas by a billion years ago.
- Life
Why diversity rules
A new experiment demonstrates the way a multitude of specialized species absorb nutrients more effectively than a highly productive one.
- Life
Worries grow over monarch butterflies
Migrants overwintering in Mexico rebounded somewhat this past winter, but still trending downward.
- Paleontology
Supersized superbunny
Fossils reveal a non-hopping giant rabbit that lived on the island of Minorca 5 million years ago.
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