1,566 results
- Plants
Nightshade plants bleed sugar as a call to ants for backup
Bittersweet nightshade produces sugary wound goo to lure in ant protectors that eat herbivores, researchers have found.
- Animals
Harvester ants are restless, enigmatic architects
Florida harvester ants dig complex, curly nests over, then leave and do it again.
- Animals
Ants’ antennae both send and receive chemical signals
Ants use their antennae to identify nest-mates and potential invaders. But antennae also produce the key compounds that ants use to tell friend from foe.
- Animals
Ants don’t make decisions on the move
Worker ants stand still while processing environmental cues and planning their next moves, a new study suggests.
- Animals
Rock ant decisions swayed by six-legged social media
When rock ants start influencing each other with one-on-one social contact, a colony’s collective decisions can change.
- Computing
Winning against a computer isn’t in the cards for poker pros
Poker-playing computers beat professional players at heads-up no-limit Texas Hold’em.
- Animals
Ants’ size and profession controlled by chemical tags on DNA
Epigenetic marks determine whether female Florida carpenter ants are soldiers or foragers.
- Anthropology
Low-status chimps revealed as trendsetters
Outranked chimpanzees trigger spread of useful new behaviors among their comrades.
- Oceans
Readers question ocean health
Ocean plastics, ant behavior, pollution solutions and more in reader feedback.
- Animals
Extreme bird nests bring comforts and catastrophe
Extreme bird nests of Southern Africa’s weaverbirds offer condo living in tough temperatures.
- Animals
New books deliver double dose of venomous animal facts
In Venomous and The Sting of the Wild, researchers delve into the world of venomous creatures and the scientists who study them.
- Animals
An echidna’s to-do list: Sleep. Eat. Dig up Australia.
Short-beaked echidna’s to-do list looks good for a continent losing other digging mammals.
