Life
- Animals
Defenseless moths do flying impressions of scary bees and wasps
Faking that erratic bee flight or no-nonsense wasp zoom might save a moth’s life.
- Animals
How a social lifestyle helped drive a river otter species to near extinction
A reconstruction of 20th-century hunting practices reveals why one species of Amazon river otters nearly went extinct while another persisted.
- Plants
New genetic details may help roses come up smelling like, well, roses
A detailed genetic look at China roses and an old European species shows that there’s a built-in trade-off between color and scent.
- Animals
See (and hear) the stunning diversity of bowhead whales’ songs
Bowhead whales display a huge range in their underwater melodies, but the drivers behind this diversity remain murky.
- Genetics
New genetic sleuthing tools helped track down the Golden State Killer suspect
DNA sleuths may have adapted new techniques for identifying John and Jane Does to track down a serial killer suspect.
- Animals
‘The Curious Life of Krill’ is an ode to an underappreciated crustacean
A new book makes the case that Antarctic krill and the dangers they face deserve your attention.
- Archaeology
Footprints prove humans hunted giant sloths during the Ice Age
Footprints of humans and giant sloths show a dramatic chase sequence from more than 10,000 years ago.
- Plants
Genetically modified plant may boost supply of a powerful malaria drug
Using a DNA study and genetic engineering, researchers tripled the amount of an antimalarial compound naturally produced by sweet wormwood plants.
- Genetics
Cicadas on different schedules can hybridize
A new genetic study suggests that cicadas that emerge every 17 years have swapped genetic material with those that emerge every 13 years.
- Climate
Heat waves are roasting reefs, but some corals may be resilient
The latest research on coral reefs clarifies the devastation of heat waves and looks at how coral might be able to adapt to warming waters.
- Life
Larger spleens may help ‘sea nomads’ stay underwater longer
The Bajau people of Southeast Asia have a gene variant associated with larger spleens, boosting their oxygen while breath-hold diving, researchers say.
- Climate
Rising CO2 levels might not be as good for plants as we thought
A 20-year experiment spots a reversal in the way two kinds of plants take up extra carbon from the atmosphere.
