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

    This honeybee parasite may be more of a fat stealer than a bloodsucker

    Inventing decoy bee larvae prompts a back-to-basics rethink of a mite ominously named Varroa destructor.

  2. Animals

    How worm blobs behave like a liquid and a solid

    Blobs of worms flow like a fluid, plop like a solid and fascinate scientists.

  3. Animals

    Green darner dragonflies migrate a bit like monarch butterflies

    Some dragonflies do a north-south annual migration that takes at least three generations.

  4. Animals

    Invasive asexual midges may upset Antarctica’s delicate moss banks

    Fast-multiplying insects with earthworm powers have invaded Antarctica, and scientists are worried about how their waste could affect the continent.

  5. Animals

    Humans wiped out mosquitoes (in one small lab test)

    An early lab test of exterminating a much-hated mosquito raises hopes, but is it really such a great idea?

  6. Animals

    Counting the breaths of wild porpoises reveals their revved-up metabolism

    A new method tracks harbor porpoises’ breathing to collect rare information on the energy needs of the marine mammals.

  7. Plants

    Hybrid rice engineered with CRISPR can clone its seeds

    New research has created self-cloning hybrid rice, raising hopes of higher food production.

  8. Animals

    Pea aphid youngsters use piggyback rides to escape a crisis

    When some mammal is about to munch their plant, aphids drop to the ground and youngsters want a ride to safety.

  9. Animals

    A jumping spider mom nurses her brood for weeks on milk

    Even after spiderlings start hunting for themselves, they come to mom for milk.

  10. Animals

    Mosquitoes may surf winds above Africa more than we realized

    More than 40 meters up, balloon traps in Mali caught females of malaria-spreading mosquito species.

  11. Animals

    How locust ecology inspired an opera

    When an entomologist decides to write a libretto, you get an operatic elegy to locusts.

  12. Animals

    Hemp fields offer a late-season pollen source for stressed bees

    Colorado’s legal fields of low-THC cannabis can attract a lot of bees.