Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Battle of the Hermaphrodites
A biologist argues that combining the sexes can actually make gender wars worse.
- Animals
Hey, Roach Babe: Male cockroaches give fancy courting whistles
Some male cockroaches whistle at females with surprisingly complex, almost birdlike whistles.
- Ecosystems
On the Rise: Siberian lakes—Major sources of methane
Field studies suggest that Siberian lakes are a much larger source of atmospheric methane than had been previously recognized.
- Ecosystems
Bad-News Beauties
Discarded aquarium fish are the likely source of an alien species that's breeding in the Atlantic and could threaten economically important U.S. fisheries.
- Ecosystems
Madagascar’s Fantastic Forests
Produced by WBUR in Boston to accompany a special program on Madagascar, this award-winning Web site offers a remarkably detailed look at life on this island, with a focus on the struggle to preserve Earth’s diversity of life. It includes photo galleries, audio clips, videos, maps, and much more. Go to: http://www.wbur.org/special/madagascar/
- Paleontology
Frozen rainforest
Fossils trapped in amber provide evidence that the Amazonian rainforest dates back 10 to 15 million years.
- Animals
Flea treatment shows downside of social life
The flealike parasites that build up in a shared burrow take an unexpectedly large toll on the ground squirrel's reproductive success.
- Animals
How do female lemurs get so tough?
Female ring-tailed lemurs may get masculinized by well-timed little rises of prenatal hormones.
- Animals
Female moths join pheromone choruses
Female rattlebox moths can detect each other's male-luring pheromones and tend to gather in what may be a scent version of male frogs' chorusing around the pond.
- Animals
Underage Spiders: Males show unexpected interest in young mates
Male Australian redback spiders mate readily with females too young to have external openings to their reproductive tracts, a tactic that reduces the male's risk of getting cannibalized.
- Paleontology
Bone Hunt
Science News reporter Sid Perkins recounts the trials and tribulations of digging for dinosaurs in central Montana.
- Animals
Seabirds take record summer vacations
Sooty shearwaters that breed in New Zealand have set a new record for off-season travel, covering 64,000 kilometers between visits to their mating ground.
