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

    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.

  2. Out of Thin Air

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

  3. 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.

  4. High CO2—a gourmet boon for crop pest

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

  5. 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.

  6. Animals

    Finch Concerts: Female bird brain notes male attention

    Male zebra finches sing slightly differently when serenading a female as opposed to twittering to themselves, and females react to those differences.

  7. New drugs tackle difficult nematodes

    Researchers have discovered what could be a new class of drugs for treating animals afflicted with nematodes.

  8. Animals

    Gator Aids: Gators squish lungs around to dive and roll

    Alligator researchers say they have discovered a new role for lungs as maneuvering aids under water.

  9. Plants

    City life changes style of weed seeds

    City living pushes for rapid evolution in the seed strategy of a little yellow flower along French sidewalks.

  10. The Next Ocean

    Increasing carbon dioxide in the air is changing the pH of the ocean, which could mean very different communities of sea creatures.

  11. Humans

    Encyclopedia of Life starts online—at times

    The project to create an online Encyclopedia of Life with a Web page for every species has taken its first, baby steps. The free-access, scientifically vetted encyclopedia, headquartered at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., opened its first portal to preliminary Web pages (www.eol.org) Feb. 26. Some 11 million hits in the first few hours […]

  12. Animals

    Hidden Depths: Antarctic krill startle deep-ocean scientists

    The first camera lowered 3,000 meters to the seabed off the coast of Antarctica videoed what biologists identify as the supposedly upper-ocean species of Antarctic krill.