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
Serotonin turns shy locusts into cereal killers
Serotonin can turn solitary locusts into swarming biblical-scale crop destroyers.
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Life
A honeybee tells two from three
Honeybees can generalize about numbers, at least up to three, a new study reports.
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Life
Carlsbad’s 8 million ‘lost’ bats likely never existed
Thermal imaging and algorithms challenge famous estimate of extreme bat number.
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Life
Everyday tree deaths have doubled
In past 50 years, apparently healthy forests have started losing trees faster, possibly because of climate change.
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Life
Three deep-sea fish families now one
Male and young whalefish look so different from females that scientists had mistakenly put them all in different families.
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Life
A Most Private Evolution
The most dramatic examples of the power of evolutionary theory may come from the strange and ugly stuff — biology too dumb to have been designed.
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Life
Superloud moth jams bat sonar
Newly recorded moth could be the first demonstrated case of natural sonar-jamming.
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Life
Fifty-two things to do with a bat wing
Bats swim, run, flirt and do lots of other nonflight jobs with their wings -- a fact that may have influenced evolution of the wing's architecture.
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Life
Rock-climbing fish caught in evolution tug-of-war
Tall is good for dodging danger, but short is better for climbing waterfalls.
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Agriculture
Candy cane strategy sweetens life for goldenrods
Goldenrods temporarily duck their heads during pest season
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Life
Buzzing bees protect plant leaves
Honeybee air traffic can interrupt caterpillars' relentless munching.
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Life
Extreme preservation gives fly’s eye view
The cell-by-cell detail of a 45 million-year–old retina is preserved in amber