Life

  1. Animals

    Marine Mules: Near-sterile hyrids boost coral diversity

    Reef corals that spawn in great mixed-up soups of many species may be maintaining their diversity because their hybrids are sterile mules.

    By Susan Milius
  2. Plants

    Mirror Image: Flowers with opposite styles have a fling

    Scientists have discovered a gene that controls whether flowers lean to the left or the right.

    By John Pickrell
  3. Animals

    Bay leaves may make rat nests nicer

    Wood rats may be fumigating their nests with bits of California bay leaves, sprigs that killed flea larvae in lab tests.

    By Susan Milius
  4. Paleontology

    All mixed up over birds and dinosaurs

    A bit of fossil fakery snookered a team of paleontologists

    By Richard Monastersky
  5. Ecosystems

    Plight of the Iguanas: Hidden die-off followed Galápagos spill

    Residues of oil spilled in the Galapágos Islands in January 2001 may have caused a 60 percent decline in one island's colony of marine iguanas.

    By Susan Milius
  6. Ecosystems

    Famine reveals incredible shrinking iguanas

    Marine iguanas in the Galápagos Islands are the first vertebrates known to reduce their size during a food shortage and then regrow to their original body lengths.

    By Susan Milius
  7. Animals

    Male bats primp daily for odor display

    For the first time, scientists have described the daily routine of male sac-winged bats gathering to freshen the odor pouches on their wings.

    By Susan Milius
  8. Animals

    Sniff . . . Pow! Wasps use chemicals to start ant brawls

    Wasps sneak around in ant colonies thanks to chemicals that send the ants into a distracting frenzy of fighting among themselves.

    By Susan Milius
  9. Animals

    Walking sticks mimic two leafy looks and split their species

    A species of walking stick may be evolving into two species by adapting to different environments.

    By Susan Milius
  10. Animals

    Mole-rats: Kissing but not quite cousins

    Damaraland mole-rats live underground in rodent versions of bee hives, but a genetic analysis of these colonies finds that kinship isn't very beelike.

    By Susan Milius
  11. Animals

    Gator Feelings: Tough faces, more sensitive than ours

    Alligator and crocodile faces carry pressure receptors so responsive that they can detect ripples on the water's surface from a single falling drop.

    By Susan Milius
  12. Animals

    No Tickling: Common caterpillars deploy defensive hair

    The caterpillars of the European cabbage butterfly have a chemical defense system that scientists haven't documented before.

    By Susan Milius