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.
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All Stories by Susan Milius
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Life
Getting dissed could be partly genetic
In marmot social networks, victimization may be to some degree heritable.
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Life
Mammal size maxed out after dinos’ demise
Opening new ecological niches led to a worldwide boom in size, up to a point.
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Animals
Island orangs descend from small group
Bornean apes went through a genetic bottleneck when isolated during an ancient glaciation.
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Animals
Cats drink using lap-and-gulp trick
Felines imbibe by pulling up a column of fluid and then snatching a bit of it before it splashes back down.
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Animals
Acidification may halve coral class of 2050
Already shown to be a threat to established reefs, experiments show that changing ocean chemistry also threatens the establishment and survival of larvae.
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Life
Will groom for snuggles
Sooty mangabey and vervet monkey mothers charge a price, dictated by market forces, that other females must pay to touch their babies.
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Animals
Lady MacBee
In one stingless Brazilian species, young queens shut out of succession in their own hives often usurp another colony’s throne.
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Life
Climate changes, and there goes the neighborhood
The ranges of rattlesnakes and voles are likely to shift drastically with warming, analyses of past changes suggest.
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Life
Pterosaurs might have soared 10,000 miles nonstop
Flight analysis suggests ancient reptiles were record setters.
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Animals
A little climate change goes a long way in the tropics
In hot places, even minor warming could rev up metabolism in animals that don’t generate their own heat, a new analysis suggests.