Life
-
Life
How both macho and meek persist
Research in voles demonstrates one way that evolution preserves two divergent strategies in a single population.
By Susan Milius -
Life
Chromosome glitch tied to separation anxiety
The finding is the latest in a series linking extra or missing gene copies to mental conditions.
-
Tech
Hooking fish, not endangered turtles
A tuna fisherman has taken it upon himself to make the seas safer for sea turtles, animals that are threatened or endangered with extinction worldwide. He’s designed a new hook that he says will make bait unavailable to marine birds and turtles until long after it’s sunk well below the range where these animals venture to eat.
By Janet Raloff -
Life
Two steps to primate social living
Evolutionary shifts about 52 million and 16 million years ago led to the group structures observed today, researchers argue.
By Nick Bascom -
Life
A gland grows itself
Japanese researchers coax a pituitary to develop from stem cells in a lab dish.
-
Life
Prehistoric horses came in leopard print
Dappled animals, once thought to be the result of selective breeding after domestication, were around when early humans depicted them on cave walls.
-
Life
School rules
Fish coordinate with one, or perhaps two, of their neighbors to make group travel a swimming success.
By Devin Powell -
Paleontology
DNA suggests North American mammoth species interbred
Supposedly separate types may really have been one.
By Susan Milius -
Life
Giant beavers had hidden vocal talents
With air passageways in its skull like no other animal known, an extinct outsized rodent may have made sound all its own.
By Susan Milius -
Paleontology
Tooth stranger than fiction
A mammal fossil unearthed in South America resembles ‘Ice Age’ saber-toothed squirrel.
-
Life
The origin of orbs
Spectacular web designs trace back to a single spider origin.
By Nick Bascom -
Life
Axing molecular zombies may slow aging
Killing off dormant cells slows the decline of mice genetically engineered to grow old fast.
By Nick Bascom