Life
- Animals
A new book shows how animals are already coping with climate change
‘Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid’ takes a clear-eyed look at future of animal life.
- Microbes
A sailor’s story captures the impact of rising serious fungal infections
Fungal infections are hard to diagnose, hard to treat and are on the rise. A young sailor is staying positive to navigate the challenges.
- Life
Albatrosses divorce more often when ocean waters warm
In one part of the Falkland Islands, up to 8 percent of the famously faithful birds ditch partners in years when the ocean is warmer than average.
- Life
‘Life as We Made It’ charts the past and future of genetic tinkering
A new book shatters illusions that human meddling with nature has only just begun.
- Animals
Climate change may be shrinking tropical birds
Scientists had previously found that migratory birds are getting smaller as temperatures rise. Dozens of tropical, nonmigratory species are too.
- Materials Science
Researchers have unlocked the secret to pearls’ incredible symmetry
Understanding the structural secrets of how mollusks form symmetrical pearls could inspire more optimal materials for solar panels and space travel.
- Life
Some songbirds now migrate east to west. Climate change may play a role
In recent decades, more Richard's pipits are wintering in Europe than before. It may signal the establishment of a totally new migration route.
- Paleontology
‘Penis worms’ may have been the original hermits
Soft-bodied critters called penis worms inhabited abandoned shells — a la modern-day hermit crabs — by about 500 million years ago, a study suggests.
- Neuroscience
50 years ago, scientists were on the trail of ‘memory molecules’
In the 1970s, scientists found the first “memory molecule.” Several other candidates have popped up in the decades since.
- Neuroscience
Brainless sponges contain early echoes of a nervous system
Simple sponges contain cells that appear to send signals to digestive chambers, a communication system that offer hints about how brains evolved.
- Animals
Baleen whales eat (and poop) a lot more than we realized
The sheer volume of food that some whales eat and then excrete suggests the animals shape ecosystems to a much larger degree than previously thought.
- Microbes
Are viruses alive, not alive or something in between? And why does it matter?
The way we talk about viruses can shift scientific research and our understanding of evolution.
