All Stories by Susan Milius
- Life
Moss counters shortness with A-bomb-style clouds
Sphagnum overcomes drag by launching its spores in vortex rings.
- Climate
Warming has already boosted insect breeding
Museum records, publications suggest extra generations at same time as temperature increases
- Life
Sexual conflict takes shape in ducks
Up-close view of male ducks reveals extreme speed and extreme conflict.
- Life
Do-it-yourself bed-bug detector
With bed-bug numbers on the rise in North America, researchers test homemade bug finders.
- Life
Virus makes plants lie to insects
Infected squash plants smell delicious but taste terrible – perfect combination for tricking aphids into spreading disease
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No one villain behind honey-bee colony collapse
Many factors may interact to bring on the mysterious honey-bee colony collapse disorder.
- Life
When feminine beauty thrives on competition
Gorgeous plumage for both starling sexes comes from rivalry in co-op nests
- Humans
Another livestock drug endangers vultures
After one veterinary NSAID almost wiped out vultures in South Asia, one of the possible replacements turns out to be toxic too.
- Life
Bird feeding, migration could be splitting a species
German birds that spend the off-season at U.K. birdfeeders now look slightly different from neighbors that migrate to Spain
- Animals
Little push turns snail lefties to righties
Bumping an early embryo’s cells can switch the direction of its spiral.
- Life
Fecal architecture is beetle armor
Predators have a hard time getting through the layers of excrement some beetle moms give their young.
- Agriculture
Nation by nation, evidence thin that boosting crop yields conserves land
Intensifying agriculture may not necessarily return farmland to nature without policy help.
