Animals
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Animals
This sea slug makes its prey do half the food catching
Nudibranchs’ stolen meals blur classic predator-prey levels.
By Susan Milius -
Life
Hybrids reveal the barriers to successful mating between species
Scientists don’t understand the process of speciation, but hybrids can reveal the genes that keep species apart.
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Animals
Scary as they are, few vampires have a backbone
Researchers speculate on why there are so few vampires among vertebrates.
By Susan Milius -
Animals
Here’s the real story on jellyfish taking over the world
In 'Spineless,' a former marine scientist reconnects with the seas and science through her obsession with these enigmatic creatures.
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Animals
Climate change may threaten these bamboo-eating lemurs
Longer dry spells and more nutrient-poor bamboo might eventually doom the greater bamboo lemur, a critically endangered species.
By Susan Milius -
Paleontology
T. rex’s silly-looking arms were built for slashing
Tyrannosaurus rex may have used its small arms for slashing prey.
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Life
Nanoscale glitches let flowers make a blue blur that bees can see
Bees learn about colorful floral rings faster when nanoscale arrays aren’t quite perfect.
By Susan Milius -
Life
How bird feeders may be changing great tits’ beaks
Longer beaks may be evolving in U.K. great tits because of the widespread use of bird feeders in the country.
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Genetics
Resurrecting extinct species raises ethical questions
'Rise of the Necrofauna' examines the technical and ethical challenges of bringing woolly mammoths and other long-gone creatures back from the dead.
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Life
The physics of mosquito takeoffs shows why you don’t feel a thing
Even when full of blood, mosquitoes use more wing force than leg force to escape a host undetected — clue to why they’re so good at spreading disease.
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Particle Physics
Readers question photons colliding, black sea snakes and more
Readers had questions about brain flexibility, black sea snakes and photon collisions.
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Animals
Being a vampire can be brutal. Here’s how bloodsuckers get by.
Blood-sucking animals have specialized physiology and other tools to live on a diet rich in protein and lacking in some nutrients.
By Susan Milius