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

    Leggiest Animal: Champ millipede located after 79-year gap

    A millipede species that can grow up to 750 legs has turned up in California after decades with no sightings.

  2. Zits in tubeworms: Part of growing up

    Young tubeworms pick up the live-in bacteria they need for nutrition in a rite of passage that starts with a skin infection.

  3. Earth

    Pumped-up Poison Ivy: Carbon dioxide boosts plant’s size, toxicity

    Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could make poison ivy grow much faster and become more toxic.

  4. Animals

    Lobster Hygiene: Healthy animals quick to spot another’s ills

    Caribbean spiny lobsters will avoid sharing a den with another lobster that's coming down with a viral disease.

  5. Animals

    True-pal lizards may show odd gene

    Colorful lizards in California may offer an example of a long-sought evolutionary factor called greenbeard genes, a possible explanation for altruism.

  6. Animals

    Jay Watch: Birds get sneakier when spies lurk

    A scrub jay storing food takes note of any other jay that watches it and later defends the hoard accordingly.

  7. Agriculture

    Biotech cotton: Less spray but same yield

    The way farmers grow transgenic cotton in Arizona lets them skip some of their regular spraying but end up with the same yield as traditional farmers, as well as the same impact on ants and beetles.

  8. Animals

    Monkey Business: Specimen of new species shakes up family tree

    The new monkey species found in Tanzania last year may be unusual enough to need a new genus, the first one created for monkeys in nearly 80 years.

  9. Plants

    Nectar: The First Soft Drink

    Plants have long competed with one another to lure animals in for a sip of their sweet formulations.

  10. Animals

    No Early Birds: Migrators can’t catch advancing caterpillars

    Pied flycatcher numbers are dwindling in places where climate change has knocked the birds' migration out of sync with the food-supply peak on their breeding grounds.

  11. Animals

    Just turn your back, Mom

    A female in a species of legless amphibians called caecilians nourishes her youngsters by letting them eat the skin off her back.

  12. Animals

    Bird hormone cuts noise distractions

    A jolt of springtime hormones makes a female sparrow's brain more responsive to song.