Animals

  1. Science & Society

    Before it burned, Brazil’s National Museum gave much to science

    When Brazil’s National Museum went up in flames, so did the hard work of the researchers who work there.

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  2. Animals

    These songbirds violently fling and then impale their prey

    A loggerhead shrike that skewers small animals on barbed wire gives mice whiplash shakeups.

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  3. Animals

    A gentoo penguin’s dinner knows how to fight back

    Cameras attached to gentoo penguins off the Falkland Islands revealed that, despite the birds’ small size, their lobster krill prey can sometimes win in a fight.

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  4. Climate

    As temperatures rise, so do insects’ appetites for corn, rice and wheat

    Hotter, hungrier pests likely to do 10 percent to 25 percent more damage to grains for each warmer degree.

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  5. Animals

    Naked mole-rats eat the poop of their queen for parenting cues

    Hormones in the naked mole-rat queen’s poop turn subordinate nest-mates into surrogate parents.

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  6. Animals

    There’s method in a firefly’s flashes

    Fireflies use their flashing lights for mating and maybe even to ward away predators.

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  7. Anthropology

    A fossil mistaken for a bat may shake up lemurs’ evolutionary history

    On Madagascar, a type of lemur called aye-ayes may have a singular evolutionary history.

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  8. Life

    How salamanders can regrow nearly complete tails but lizards can’t

    Differences in stem cells in the spinal cord explain the amphibians’ ability.

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  9. Tech

    Here’s what robots could learn from fire ants

    Fire ants’ secret to success is prioritizing efficiency over fairness. Robot teams could use that strategy to work more efficiently in tight, crowded quarters.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    A resurrected gene may protect elephants from cancer

    Researchers have found another gene that may play a role in explaining elephants’ cancer resistance.

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  11. Animals

    In the animal kingdom, what does it mean to be promiscuous?

    A review of hundreds of scientific studies finds that the label “promiscuous” is applied to a surprisingly wide range of mating behaviors in animals.

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  12. Paleontology

    What ‘The Meg’ gets wrong — and right — about megalodon sharks

    A paleobiologist helps Science News separate shark fact from fiction in the new Jason Statham film The Meg.

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