Animals

  1. Chemistry

    Silk

    Mimicking how spiders make their complex array of silks could usher in a tapestry of new materials, and other animals or plants could be designed to be the producers.

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  2. Life

    Morse Toad: When amphibians tap their toes

    Toe wiggling creates motions, vibrations that get potential prey moving.

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  3. Animals

    Bat syndrome’s telltale white nose-mold new to science

    Newly cultured fungus named as a suspect in deadly white-nose syndrome

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  4. Animals

    Farm chemicals can indirectly hammer frogs

    A widely used agricultural weed killer teams up with fertilizer to render frogs especially vulnerable to debilitating parasites.

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  5. Animals

    Not Your Father’s Song

    The next generation of birds chooses its music.

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  6. Animals

    Honeybees still at risk

    Bees still suffering from colony collapse disorder.

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  7. Animals

    Spider males good for mating, food

    Expectant mothers, including spiders, need to eat well. For Mediterranean tarantulas, a male suitor tastes just fine.

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  8. Animals

    I, Magpie

    Some magpies recognize themselves in mirrors, indicating that a basic form of self-recognition evolved in one family of birds.

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  9. Animals

    Built for Speed

    Animals would prove fierce competitors at the Olympics — if only they would stay in their lanes.

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  10. Animals

    We all sing like fish

    From opera singers to toadfish, vertebrates may use basically similar circuitry for controlling vocal muscles.

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  11. Animals

    Brains for a change

    Outsized brains may have sped up evolution of body size in birds.

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  12. Life

    Young tasmanian devil moms

    Tasmanian devils have started mating much earlier in response to an epidemic, called facial tumor disease, that is wiping out much of their population.

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