Animals
- Life
Earwigs take origami to extremes to fold their wings
Stretchy joints let earwig wings flip quickly between folded and unfurled.
- Animals
How oral vaccines could save Ethiopian wolves from extinction
A mass oral vaccination program in Ethiopian wolves could pave the way for other endangered species and help humans, too.
- Animals
Dino-bird had wings made for flapping, not just gliding
Archaeopteryx fossils suggest the dino-birds were capable of flapping their wings in flight.
- Neuroscience
Readers muse about memory, magnetic monopoles and more
Readers had questions about the physical trace of memory, magnetic monopoles, blowflies and more.
- Animals
This baby bird fossil gives a rare look at ancient avian development
A 127-million-year-old fossil of a baby bird suggests diversity in how a group of extinct birds grew.
- Anthropology
Humans don’t get enough sleep. Just ask other primates.
Short, REM-heavy sleep bouts separate humans from other primates, scientists find. Sleeping on the ground may have a lot to do with it.
- Animals
In a pack hunt, it’s every goatfish for itself
Pack hunting among goatfish is really about self-interest.
- Earth
By 2100, damaged corals may let waves twice as tall as today’s reach coasts
Structurally complex coral reefs can defend coasts against waves, even as sea levels rise.
- Animals
Penguin supercolony discovered in Antarctica
Scientists have found a penguin supercolony living on tiny, remote Antarctic islands.
- Animals
It’s official: Termites are just cockroaches with a fancy social life
On their latest master list of arthropods, U.S. entomologists have finally declared termites to be a kind of cockroach.
- Animals
A new species of tardigrade lays eggs covered with doodads and streamers
These elegant eggs hint that a tardigrade found in a Japanese parking lot is a new species.
- Animals
This scratchy hiss is the closest thing yet to caterpillar vocalization
A new way that caterpillars make noise may involve (tiny) teakettle‒style turbulence.
