The Science Life
- Health & Medicine
Chickens stand sentinel against mosquito-borne disease in Florida
To learn where mosquitoes are transmitting certain viruses, Florida officials deploy chickens and test them for antibodies to the pathogens.
- Genetics
DNA from extinct red wolves lives on in some mysterious Texas coyotes
Mystery canids on Texas’ Galveston Island carry red wolf DNA, thought to be extinct in the wild for 40 years.
- Anthropology
Why modern javelin throwers hurled Neandertal spears at hay bales
A sporting event with replica weapons suggests that Neandertals’ spears may have been made for throwing, not just stabbing.
- Anthropology
This scientist watches meat rot to decipher the Neandertal diet
This scientist is studying how meat changes as it rots to figure out what Neandertals might have eaten.
- Animals
How locust ecology inspired an opera
When an entomologist decides to write a libretto, you get an operatic elegy to locusts.
- Ecosystems
How researchers flinging salmon inadvertently spurred tree growth
Scientists studying salmon in Alaska flung dead fish into the forest. After 20 years, the nutrients from those carcasses sped up tree growth.
- Ecosystems
Confused mayflies wreak havoc on a Pennsylvania bridge
Cleaning a river in central Pennsylvania brought back mayflies, which now pose a threat to motorists crossing a bridge.
- Animals
There’s method in a firefly’s flashes
Fireflies use their flashing lights for mating and maybe even to ward away predators.
- Animals
Surprise! This shark looks like a male on the outside, but it’s made babies
External male reproductive organs hid internal female capacity to give birth among hermaphrodite sharks in India.
- Animals
With a little convincing, rats can detect tuberculosis
TB-sniffing rats prove more accurate in detecting infection, especially in children, than the most commonly used diagnostic tool.
- Animals
Humpback whale bumps have marine biologists stumped
Christine Gabriele is taking tissue samples from humpback whales in Hawaii to determine why more and more have nodular dermatitis.
- Science & Society
Kids are starting to picture scientists as women
An analysis of studies asking kids to draw a scientist finds that the number of females drawn has increased over the last 50 years.
