Animals
- Genetics
Study debunks fishy tale of how rabbits were first tamed
A popular tale about rabbit domestication turns out to be fiction.
- Life
Shipping noise can disturb porpoises and disrupt their mealtime
Noise from ships may disturb harbor porpoises enough to keep them from getting the food they need.
- Animals
Even after bedbugs are eradicated, their waste lingers
Bedbug waste contains high levels of the allergy-triggering chemical histamine, which stays behind even after the insects are eradicated.
- Animals
Trove of hummingbird flight data reveals secrets of nimble flying
Tweaks in muscle and wing form give different hummingbird species varying levels of agility.
- Animals
It’s a bad idea for a toad to swallow a bombardier beetle
Toads are tough. But there are some insects even they shouldn’t swallow.
- Paleontology
This ancient creature looks like a spider with a tail
A newly discovered ancient creature looks like a spider and has silk spinners and spidery male sex organs.
- Animals
A peek into polar bears’ lives reveals revved-up metabolisms
Polar bears have higher metabolisms than scientists thought. In a world with declining Arctic sea ice, that could spell trouble.
- Animals
A killer whale gives a raspberry and says ‘hello’
Tests of imitating sounds finds that orcas can sort of mimic humans.
- Animals
Slower speed, tricky turns give prey a chance against cheetahs and lions
A bonanza of data on wild predators running shows that hunting is more than sprinting.
- Animals
Here’s why so many saiga antelope mysteriously died in 2015
Higher than normal temperatures turned normally benign bacteria lethal, killing hundreds of thousands of the saiga antelopes.
- Genetics
Baby macaques are the first primates to be cloned like Dolly the Sheep
Scientists have cloned two baby macaque monkeys with the same technique used to clone Dolly. The research could help advance the cloning of other species.
- Health & Medicine
Here’s the key ingredient that lets a centipede’s bite take down prey
A newly identified “spooky toxin” launches a broad attack but might be eased with a version of a known drug.
