All Stories by Susan Milius
- Plants
It Takes a Village: Tweaking neighbors reroutes evolution
The other residents of a plant's neighborhood can make a big difference in whether evolutionary forces favor or punish a plant's trait.
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Eastern farms have native-bee insurance
If honeybees somehow vanished, the pockets of wild land in the Delaware Valley still harbor enough native bees to fill in and do the tough job of pollinating watermelon farms.
- Plants
Tough Frills: Ferns’ wimp stage aces survival test
A supposedly fragile stage in the life of ferns shows surprising toughness.
- Agriculture
Insects laughing at Bt toxin? Try this
A new countermeasure restores the toxicity of Bt pesticides to insects that have evolved resistance.
- Animals
Mr. Not Wrong: Not my species? Not a problem
Female toads that accept mates of another species in tough times may be looking after their own interest.
- Animals
Cousin Who? Gliding mammals may be primates’ nearest kin
Two species of small, little-known rain forest mammals may be primates' closest living relatives.
- Animals
Smells Funny: Fish schools break up over body odor
Just an hour's swim in slightly contaminated water can give a fish such bad body odor that its schoolmates shun it.
- Earth
Bad Acid: Ocean’s pH drop threatens snail defense
As ocean waters trend toward acidity, a result of atmospheric greenhouse gas buildup, a shoreline snail's defense against predatory crabs may weaken.
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Not Just Hitchhikers
Salmonella and other human pathogens on vegetables aren't just riding along like casual smears of dirt; they're moving in and setting up housekeeping.
- Animals
Eat a Killer: Snake dines safely with strategic delays
An Australian snake kills dangerous frogs then waits for their defensive chemicals to degrade before eating them.
- Animals
Crowcam: Camera on bird’s tail captures bird ingenuity
Video cameras attached to tropical crows record the birds' use of plant stems as tools to dig out food.
- Animals
Tough-guy bluebirds need a frontier
As western bluebirds recolonize Montana, the most aggressive males move in first, paving the way for milder-mannered dads to take over.
