6,702 results
- Plants
The bladderwort: No ruthless microbe killer
A carnivorous plant called a bladderwort may not be a fierce predator at all but a misunderstood mutualist.
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From the July 4, 1931 issue
MAGNIFYING EYE WOULD SEE STRANGE THINGS If we could only convert our eyes into magnifying glasses at will, we would see a lot of astonishing things that escape us now because they are too small. The little walking gargoyle shown on the cover of Science News Letter, for example. It is a juvenile stage of […]
- Paleontology
Did ancient superbees squash diversity?
The recent discovery of several dozen extinct bee species in ancient amber deposits has led one paleontologist to propose that the very success of some bees' social lifestyle led to today's dearth of hive-dwelling species.
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Things That Go Thump
There's a whole world of animal communication by vibration that researchers are now exploring.
- Animals
Wild gerbils pollinate African desert lily
Scientists in South Africa have found the first known examples of gerbils pollinating a flower.
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From the January 31, 1931, issue
ROBBER FLY MASQUERADES IN BUMBLEBEE’S CLOTHING The villainous-looking hexapod that glares at you from the cover of this week’s SCIENCE NEWS LETTER is as bad a citizen as he looks. He is a robber fly, who should by rights be called an assassin fly, for his practice is to pounce upon other insects in the […]
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Caterpillars die rather than switch
A newly identified compound in tomatoes and other plants of the nightshade family turns hornworms into addicts that often starve rather than eat another food.
- Animals
20/20 lenses coat body of sea creature
The skeleton of brittlestars doubles as an array of optically precise lenses that rival plastic microlenses designed by engineers.
- Paleontology
Rocks yield clues to flower origins
A distinctive organic chemical related to substances produced by modern flowering plants has been found in ancient fossil-bearing sediments, possibly helping to identify the ancestral plants that gave rise to flowers.
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Chemical SOS not just for farm, lab plants
The chemical screams for help that scientists have detected from agricultural plants under attack by pests in lab settings have now been heard in the wild.
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Can visiting a plant ruin an experiment?
Merely walking up to a plant and handling its leaves may skew outcomes in studies of predators attacking plants.
- Animals
Fruit flies hear by spinning their noses
Drosophila have a rotating ear—and odor-sensing—structure that's new to science.
