521 results
- Life
As Brood II emerges, questions remain about cicada cycles
The how and why of years lived underground are among the unsolved mysteries about the loud, obvious insects.
- Animals
Cicadas’ odd life cycle poses evolutionary conundrums
Scientists are getting an idea about the odd family tree of periodical cicadas, how the insects synchronize their life cycles and why they breed side-by-side with others unsuitable for mating.
-
Letters
Lumpy lunar illusion Are you folks aware of a phenomenon based on the universal expectation that objects are illuminated by light coming from above? Several startling optical illusions are based on this quirk of the mind. For example, the sharp moon map in “Orbiter delivers sharp moon map” (SN: 7/30/11, p. 12) makes the moon […]
-
The Sopranos with feathers
Stories from a day of bird searching.
- Humans
This snowbird is really going SOUTH
Many people of a certain age (like my folks) enjoy flying south to warmer climes when winter weather threatens. I’m also flying south this December — but not to warm up. As a guest of the National Science Foundation, I’ll be checking out summer in the really deep South: Antarctica. Temps expected at certain sites I’m scheduled to visit, such as the South Pole, threaten to surpass the worst that my hometown will encounter in the dead of winter.
- Animals
Collision Course
The tales of two ornithologists trying to prevent birds colliding with windows highlight the obstacles facing applied biology.
-
When Birds Go to Town
Urban settings offer enterprising critters new opportunities — if they can cope with the challenges
- Life
Archaeopteryx wore black
Microscopic structures in an iconic fossil feather suggest that it was the color of a crow.
- Life
Microraptor’s true blue colors
The birdlike dinosaur had black, iridescent feathers that may have helped it attract mates.
-
Letters
Defining the human species Having read “Humans benefited by interbreeding” (SN: 10/8/11, p. 13), I wonder if I have missed what, to me, seems a major change in the definition of “species.” I was taught that the attempted crossbreeding of animals of two different species could result in either no offspring or sterile offspring. If […]
-
-
