All Stories by Susan Milius
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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.
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Botanical Whales
Adventures in the Tortugas reveal that seagrass fields need saving too.
- Animals
Classic view of leaf-cutter ants overlooked nitrogen-fixing partner
A fresh look at a fungus-insect partnership that biologists have studied for more than a century uncovers a role for bacteria.
- Life
Killer bees aren’t so smart
Brains are probably not what powers the invasive bee’s takeover from European honeybees
- Ecosystems
Impatiens plants are more patient with siblings
Streamside wildflower holds back on leaf competition when roots meet close kin
- Animals
Textbook case of color-changing spider reopened
Female crab spiders switch colors to match flowers but may not fool their prey
