Susan Milius

Susan Milius

Life Sciences Writer

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.

All Stories by Susan Milius

  1. Animals

    Twee Twee Tweetle

    Bird brains have a separate pathway for the babbling nonsense of baby talk.

  2. Animals

    Sexy side of UV-B

    The first evidence of ultraviolet-B courtship in animals comes from jumping spiders.

  3. Life

    Bat that roared

    Although the human ear can't detect it, bats make astonishingly loud noises while hunting.

  4. Humans

    Bear deadline

    Court calls for the already overdue decision on listing polar bears as a threatened species.

  5. Ecosystems

    Beetle attack overturns forest carbon regime

    Ravaged Canadian region switches from carbon sink to net carbon source.

  6. Climate

    Researchers rethink fate of celebrity plankton

    A poster-species for the hazards of greenhouse gas accumulation thrives in carbon dioxide-rich waters.

  7. Animals

    First Frog without Lungs

    An aquatic frog in fast-flowing water in Borneo turns out to be the first frog species with no lungs.

  8. Animals

    Robin stole credit for Batman’s deeds

    Bats turn out to be overlooked but significant eaters of insects, pests and other arthropods on shade-grown coffee farms and in tropical forests.

  9. Out of Thin Air

    Biologists dream of the day when they could engineer crops to make fertilizer out of the nitrogen in the air.

  10. Animals

    Night Flights: Migrating moths may use a nighttime compass

    Silver Y moths choose to fly when wind blows in the same direction that they migrate, and they may even compensate when the wind pushes them off-course.

  11. High CO2—a gourmet boon for crop pest

    Relatively high concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide weaken soybean defenses against Japanese beetles.

  12. Animals

    Farm girl has the chops

    The first big family tree presenting the history of fungus-growing ants shows the leaf-cutters as the newest branch, and a very recent one at that.