Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Cyber Salmon
To learn about chum, chinook, and coho salmon, try this Web site from the Alaska Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Learn about the people of Alaska, several salmon species, and salmon habitat. The site includes salmon-related activities and lesson plans for various grade levels. Go to: http://cybersalmon.fws.gov/index.html
- Animals
Bird-Safe Rx: Alternative drug won’t kill India’s vultures
Researchers have found an alternative to the livestock drug that has accidentally poisoned a majority of the vultures in India and neighboring countries.
- Animals
Poor Devils: Critters’ fights transmit cancer
Tasmanian devils transmit cancer cells when they bite each other during routine squabbles, producing lesions that are often fatal.
- Animals
New candidates for smallest vertebrate
Two recent scientific papers have described fish species that could, depending on the definition, be the world's smallest known vertebrate.
- Animals
Eggs Scramble: Fungi trick termites into babysitting
A fungus may be taking advantage of hardworking termite nursemaids by tricking them into tending egg-shaped fungal reproductive bodies along with real termite eggs.
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- Paleontology
First Steps
Using materials as diverse as lobster eggs, dead birds, and the headless carcass of a rhinoceros, scientists are conducting experiments that scrutinize the first steps of the fossilization process.
- Ecosystems
Life Underfoot: Microbial biodiversity takes surprising twist
When it comes to numbers of bacterial species, rainforest dirt is virtually a desert, but desert dirt bursts with biodiversity.
- Animals
Little Professor: Ants rank as first true animal teachers
The best evidence so far of true teaching in a nonhuman animal comes from ants. With video.
- Animals
First maternal care filmed in squid
At least one squid species turns out to be a caring mom after all, say researchers who filmed the creatures using remote-control cameras positioned deep in the Pacific Ocean. With Video.
- Animals
The Trouble with Chasing a Bee
Radar has long been able to detect high-flying clouds of insects, but it's taken much longer for scientists to figure out how to track your average bee.
- Animals
Locust Upset: DNA puts swarmer’s origin in Africa
The desert locust was not an ancient export from the Americas, according to a new DNA analysis.
