Animals

  1. Ecosystems

    Burrowing birds create pockets of rich plant life in a desert landscape

    Mounds of sand dug out by birds are hot spots for plants in Peru’s Atacama Desert, possibly providing a sheltered and moist area for seed germination.

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  2. Life

    Gene editing can make fruit flies into ‘monarch flies’

    Just three molecular changes can make fruit flies insensitive to milkweed toxins.

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  3. Climate

    Malin Pinsky seeks to explain how climate change alters ocean life

    As global temperatures rise, Malin Pinsky’s research attempts to understand how marine ecosystems are changing and why.

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  4. Genetics

    Dog behaviors like aggression and fearfulness are linked to breed genetics

    A study looking at how 101 dog breeds behave finds a strong association between genetics and 14 personality traits.

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  5. Life

    Losing genes may have helped whales’ ancestors adapt to life under the sea

    Jettisoning genes tied to saliva and the lungs, among others, could have smoothed ancient cetaceans’ land-to-water transition 50 million years ago.

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  6. Life

    Cats may have ‘attachment styles’ that mirror people’s

    In a new study, 65 percent of felines formed secure attachments with their owners. Like people, other cats were ambivalent or avoidant.

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  7. Life

    We’ve lost 3 billion birds since 1970 in North America

    Scientists estimated the change in total number of individual birds since 1970. They found profound losses spread among rare and common birds alike.

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  8. Life

    Climate change may be throwing coral sex out of sync

    Several widespread corals in the Red Sea are flubbing cues to spawn en masse.

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  9. Agriculture

    Birds fed a common pesticide lost weight rapidly and had migration delays

    Scientists have previously implicated neonicotinoid pesticides in declining bee populations. Now a study suggests that songbirds are affected, too.

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  10. Life

    Human meddling has manipulated the shapes of different dog breeds’ brains

    By analyzing the shape of different dog breeds’ brains, researchers show how humans have manipulated the animals’ brain anatomy.

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  11. Life

    Fly fossils might challenge the idea of ancient trilobites’ crystal eyes

    Fossilized crane flies from 54 million years ago probably got their crystal lenses after death.

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  12. Life

    50 years ago, scientists thought they knew why geckos had sticky feet

    50 years ago, scientists thought gecko feet had suction cups that allowed the animals to stick to surfaces. Today we know tiny hairs do the job.

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